Airstrikes and artillery fire rocked northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region overnight into Monday (October 5, 2026), aid sources said, in clashes between federal government and rebel forces that have raised fears of wider fighting.
The bulletin added that the government forces exchanged artillery fire with fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front — part of a rebel alliance aiming to overthrow Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government. Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize. Air attacks killed at least 17 people northwest of Tigray’s capital Mekelle — which federal government forces took over the weekend — according to a bulletin circulated among humanitarian groups. On Sunday (October 4, 2026), the leaders of Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia discussed the crisis during a meeting, according to two Egyptian security officials and one political official, speaking on condition of anonymity. On Monday (October 5, 2026) morning, Ethiopia’s military and Tigrayan forces exchanged heavy artillery fire close to the Tekeze River near the town of Mai Tsebri, according to the humanitarian bulletin. Overnight, airstrikes killed at least nine people in Adwa, which is about 100 km northwest of Mekelle, and eight in Sheraro in northwestern Tigray, the bulletin said. Eritrean forces fought in support of Ethiopia’s federal government in Tigray during the 2020-2022 war following a 2018 normalisation of ties between the longtime foes that won Mr.
In Mekelle, which Tigrayan forces left without a fight, daily life was returning to normal, with shops reopening and phone and internet access returning a week-long disruption, residents said.
