Fighting in northern Ethiopia spurs fears of blackout and blockade

Tigray was cutoff from the world during the 2020-2022 civil war, which killed around 600,000 people.

Fears of a communications blackout in northern Ethiopia have increased as fighting flares between the federal military and forces from the Tigray region and ⁠their allies.

Telecom and internet networks were reported to have stopped working on Friday as the conflict threatened to develop across the country into a full-scale war.

The interruptions have provoked fears of a repeat of the communications blackout and supplies blockade during the 2020-2022 civil war in ⁠northern Ethiopia, when Tigray was largely cut off from the outside world.

Web monitor NetBlocks said it had detected an “internet disruption in northern Ethiopia corresponding to reports of a telecoms blackout in Tigray”.

The Reuters news agency reported that Tigray’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, had ordered private operator Safaricom and state-owned Ethio telecom to cut off access ⁠to phone and internet networks in the region.

Full-scale war

A source said the restrictions may be part of a tactic to neutralise the advantage of government forces using battlefield drones.

Lower-level clashes between federal and Tigrayan forces have been ongoing for some time. However, fighting intensified this week across Tigray and later spread to the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions, after seven armed groups announced they have formed an alliance.

The Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival has committed itself to removing the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The Tigray Army said the federal government had launched a “full-scale offensive” involving infantry, mechanised units and drones, and said its forces had begun what they called a defensive war to counter aggression by Abiy’s government.

The alliance forces have seized three airports and launched attacks against ⁠federal troops in Afar and Amhara.

The ⁠federal government has accused Eritrea of financially backing the TPLF and its allies, which leaders in the capital Asmara deny.

Abdisalam Balema, a member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s (TPLF) central committee, told Al Jazeera that the situation has become a “full war”.

The outbreak of violence is the most serious escalation ⁠since the civil war in 2020-2022. During that conflict, which killed an estimated 600,000 people, the telecoms blackout and supplies blockade imposed on Tigray caused famine-like conditions for hundreds of thousands of people.

People in Tigray are reported to have rushed to stock up on basic supplies and withdraw cash.

The renewed fighting comes at an awkward moment for the United States, which only this month lifted sanctions on Ethiopia and Eritrea related to atrocities committed during the last civil war, saying the “national emergency… has expired”.

The conflict could also draw in neighbouring Eritrea, which fears landlocked Ethiopia is planning to invade it to gain access to the Red Sea.