Ethiopian Airlines suspends flights to Tigray region after takeover of Mekelle airport

Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to Ethiopia's northern Tigray region on Wednesday after Tigrayan forces seized the airport in the regional capital Mekelle from federal police, according to local sources.

The state-owned carrier said on social media that flights to Mekelle and the cities of Shire and Axum had been halted "due to the current situation in Tigray region," without giving further details.

Two local sources told Reuters that Tigrayan forces, who fought the federal government during a 2020-2022 civil war that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, had taken control of the Mekelle airport from federal police overnight.

Spokespeople for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party that runs Tigray, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The TPLF, which also led the region during the civil war, announced on Sunday it had formed an alliance with six other armed groups across Ethiopia aimed at overthrowing Abiy's government.

The move followed months of deteriorating relations between the TPLF and federal government. The two sides signed a peace deal in November 2022 to end the war but each has been accusing the other of violating the agreement.

In May, the TPLF seized control of the region's government from the interim administration established under the peace deal.

The Ethiopian military has carried out several drone strikes against Tigrayan forces in recent months, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project.

The federal government has not commented on the reported strikes, but the military said last week that nearly 300 Tigrayan fighters had surrendered.

(Reporting by Vincent Mumo Nzilani; Editing by Aaron Ross and Ros Russell)