A cautious calm prevailed on Sunday after hours of armed clashes in northern Ethiopia between federal forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), two sources told AFP.
The TPLF official, who requested anonymity, said that armed clashes involving heavy artillery and drones broke out on Saturday in the Shirena area near the border with Sudan, adding that “there is a lull,” without mentioning any casualties.
The official added that although the fighting had stopped, “we are still facing each other.”
A security source, also requesting anonymity, confirmed the information.
The clashes between Ethiopian federal forces and TPLF forces erupted in an escalation that raised fears of a new war.
The second-in-command of TPLF, Emmanuel Assefa, told AFP, “The federal government launched an attack on Tigrayan forces in Shirena, near the border with Sudan.”
Ethiopian and TPLF forces have been stationed for months along the border of the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, with each side accusing the other of trying to ignite a new conflict.
According to Assefa, the fighting, which involved heavy artillery, took place in western Tigray, a disputed area controlled by ethnic groups from the neighboring Amhara region.
Escalating tensions
The TPLF asserted in a statement two days ago that Ethiopian federal forces had “escalated their destructive actions to a higher level,” condemning a “large-scale ground offensive.”
According to media reports, this renewed escalation of tensions raises the risk of a new war, less than four years after the end of a bloody conflict between the TPLF and federal forces that resulted in the deaths of at least 600,000 people, according to estimates by the African Union.
The Ethiopian federal government and the TPLF signed the Pretoria Peace Agreement in November 2022 in South Africa to end the two-year-long conflict.
In late 2025, clashes erupted between Tigrayan forces and federal authorities, who also launched several drone strikes in the region.
Then, in late April, TPLF reactivated a local parliament that Addis Ababa had deemed illegitimate, directly challenging the authority of the federal government.
The TPLF, a former armed movement that transformed into a political party, dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before its dominance ended with Abiy Ahmed’s rise to the premiership in 2018.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
