The Tigray Peace Forces, allied with Ethiopia’s federal government, said on October 2 that they had captured Milazat near Mekelle. Reuters reported the claim and said it could not independently verify it. The reported advance brings the fighting closer to Tigray’s capital.
The diplomatic confrontation has widened alongside the fighting. Ethiopia ordered the closure of its embassy in Asmara and the departure of ten Eritrean diplomats on October 1; Eritrea then severed diplomatic relations. The Associated Press reported the expulsions as renewed hostilities disrupted the settlement that ended the 2020–2022 war.
Ethiopia has accused Eritrea, Egypt and Sudan of supporting armed opponents. All three countries deny the allegation, as Semafor reported on October 2. The dispute has drawn neighbouring governments into exchanges over their relations with Ethiopia and the conduct of the war.
The African Union Commission urged Ethiopia, Eritrea and Egypt to avoid actions and statements that could aggravate tensions, according to Reuters’ account of its appeal. The intervention places diplomatic communication alongside the immediate question of halting hostilities. Closing embassies and expelling officials reduces ordinary channels of contact precisely when the governments are making increasingly serious allegations against one another.
Fighting and access to essential services
The medical consequences were already visible before the latest advance claim. MSF figures reported by Addis Standard on September 29 recorded more than 420 war-wounded patients at Korem and Alamata hospitals between September 22 and 25, and more than 300 at Suhul Hospital in Shire by September 25. The figures concern patients reaching those facilities, rather than a comprehensive count of deaths or injuries across the conflict.
The same report said MSF had suspended activities at Alamata Hospital because of insecurity while reinforcing work at other hospitals. That combination makes the consequences of territorial fighting concrete. Medical demand can increase at the same time that movement becomes harder and a facility can no longer operate safely. Reaching a hospital, keeping staff at work and maintaining supplies become separate obstacles within the same emergency.
These developments follow the wider disruption described in PUNT NEWS’s September reporting. Fighting across Tigray, Afar and Amhara was accompanied by interruptions to communications and competing accounts of who initiated the escalation. For civilians, the practical consequences extend beyond proximity to a front line. A disrupted connection or transport route can interrupt contact with relatives, access to money and the organisation of medical assistance.
Negotiated movement has continued in some cases. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it evacuated 161 people from Mekelle to Semera in Afar on September 28, with all relevant authorities’ agreement. The passengers included federal police personnel and relatives, airline employees and relatives, aviation security staff, African Union monitors and Ethiopian Red Cross members. ICRC staff accompanied buses carrying the Red Cross emblem.
A changed diplomatic setting
The earlier PUNT NEWS account recorded army chief Field Marshal Berhanu Jula’s September 27 statement that federal forces were exercising restraint, together with his accusation that Eritrea supported armed groups. Tigrayan forces described the fighting as a federal offensive, while the federal government blamed Tigray-aligned forces for initiating attacks. Those opposing descriptions remain important to understanding the public positions from which each side approaches the conflict.
The subsequent embassy closure changes the setting in which those positions are exchanged. A military confrontation within Ethiopia now coincides with a formal rupture between neighbouring governments. The immediate diplomatic issue is how messages, complaints and proposals can be transmitted when established bilateral channels have been curtailed.
The geography gives that issue a regional dimension. Tigray’s position beside Eritrea connects events in northern Ethiopia with relations across an international border. Fighting also involves routes through Afar and Amhara. A development around Mekelle therefore enters an account that already encompasses several administrative areas and different armed organisations. Treating every reported movement as part of a single settled alliance would conceal the distinctions among those actors.
The 2022 agreement remains the historical reference point for the current deterioration. It marked the end of the earlier war and established a framework within which disputes were supposed to be managed after large-scale hostilities. Renewed fighting now places that framework under pressure through events on the ground. The practical questions concern access, communication and the conduct of armed forces as much as the formal existence of an agreement.
The evacuation illustrates how transport depends on communication across the lines of conflict. An agreed route enabled people to leave Mekelle while fighting and diplomatic confrontation continued. Access to hospitals and other essential services presents the same practical need for contact between authorities: people must be able to move through the places controlled by different forces to reach assistance.
The latest situation combines an attributed advance near Mekelle, an established diplomatic rupture and documented pressure on hospitals. Those developments require different responses from military authorities, diplomats and humanitarian organisations. The African Union’s appeal seeks to preserve a route back to dialogue while medical teams confront the immediate consequences. For people in the affected areas, the most direct measures remain whether roads can be used, services continue and treatment can be reached.