Ethiopia’s Afar region accuses TPLF fighters of crossing border, seizing villages

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

Authorities in Ethiopia’s Afar region accused fighters from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) on Wednesday of crossing into the region and seizing six villages in one of the most serious incidents since the end of the war in northern Ethiopia.

The Afar regional government said TPLF forces opened fire with heavy weapons in the Tonsa area of Megale district, targeting pastoralist communities, warning that it would “defend itself from external attack” if the assaults continued.

The TPLF, which dominated Ethiopia’s politics for nearly three decades before being ousted from power in 2018, fought federal troops from 2020 to 2022 in a devastating conflict that ended with the Pretoria Agreement.

The deal restored relative calm but left deep divisions and sporadic tensions across northern Ethiopia.

The party has since splintered, with some senior members forming new political movements including Getachew Reda, a former TPLF spokesperson who served as Tigray’s interim administrator after the peace deal and is now Minister Advisor for East African Affairs under the federal government.

The TPLF is yet to respond to the Afar government’s allegations.