Ethiopian Forces Retake Mekelle from TPLF Rebels — SkimNews
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- Pro-government forces regained control of Mekelle on Saturday, confirmed Sunday by the Tigray Peace Forces militia on Facebook, with Ethiopian military following into the city center shortly afterward, per a source close to the militia.
- TPLF said it had retreated and that the regional government would "temporarily move out of Mekelle and operate from somewhere else," in a statement acknowledging the loss of the regional capital.
- The TPLF had launched a big offensive against the Ethiopian military on September 23, making the federal counterattack and recapture of Mekelle a swift reversal of the rebel advance.
- Ethiopia's federal government severed diplomatic ties with Eritrea last week, accusing it of supporting the TPLF alongside Sudan and Egypt — a charge all three countries deny.
- Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty denied backing the rebels, saying "we are not party to the domestic crisis facing Ethiopia now," and spoke ahead of a Sunday meeting between President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, his Eritrean and Somali counterparts, and Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in Egypt.
- Egypt and Ethiopia have been at odds for years over Ethiopia's construction of a major Nile dam, which Abdelatty called "an existential issue" for 110 million Egyptians.
Why it matters: The fall of Mekelle reverses the TPLF's September 23 offensive within days, handing Addis Ababa a swift military win against an alliance that ruled Tigray for decades. But Ethiopia's diplomatic rupture with Eritrea — coupled with denials from Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea — widens a Horn of Africa crisis rooted in the 2020-2022 civil war and Egypt's existential objections to Ethiopia's Nile dam.
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