Anti-Abiy and pro-TPLF slogans are scrawled on the runway at the Lalibela airport in Lalibela, on December 7, 2021. Ethiopia's Afar region said late on November 5, 2025 it was under attack from forces of the neighbouring Tigray region. (AFP/File)

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ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia's Afar region has said it came under attack from the forces of neighbouring Tigray, accusing it of seizing control of villages and bombing civilians, in the latest sign of internal conflict in the fractured nation.

Rebels in the northern Tigray region fought a devastating civil war against the central government from 2020 to 2022 in which an estimated 600,000 people died, and relations with the capital and other regions remain tense.

On Wednesday, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) "entered Afar territory and forcefully took control of six villages, bombarding civilians with mortars and (heavy artillery)", the Afar regional administration said in a statement.

Late Thursday, the interim authorities of Tigray labelled the accusations "baseless", and part of a "malicious plot to deliberately harm the Tigrayan people".

In a statement they also claimed armed forces in Afar had carried out "repeated attacks" in recent years. AFP is unable to verify who carried out these raids.

A source in a humanitarian agency, who requested anonymity to speak to AFP, confirmed the attacks on Afar took place and said fighting had ended by late Wednesday.

"Many people were displaced. I have not heard of any casualties," the source said.

The Afar authorities said Tigrayan forces attacked the Megale district in Afar and "proceeded to open heavy weaponry fire on civilian pastoralists", warning that it would "undertake its defensive duty to protect itself" if attacks continued.

'Path to war'

Kjetil Tronvoll, a professor at Oslo New University College and specialist on the region, told AFP it was not yet clear what triggered the latest skirmish.

But he said Ethiopia has been on a "path to war" for months, with battle lines hardening between Tigray and the federal government.

The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics from 1991 to 2018 until it was sidelined with the rise to power of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

In May, the TPLF was banned from political activity by the Electoral Commission over a technicality.

Last month, the central government accused the TPLF, in a letter to the United Nations, of forging ties with neighbouring Eritrea and "actively preparing to wage war against Ethiopia".

Its finance ministry also cancelled the disbursement of more than 2 billion birrs ($13.1 million) to Tigray.

"Unfortunately, much of the budget allocated to Tigray is being diverted for military purposes, which harms the region and leaves ordinary people suffering," Abiy told parliament last week.

The Tigray region, home to around six million people, is financially drained, while some one million people remain displaced from the 2020-22 war.