Omna Tigray Statement on the Federal Capture of Mekelle and the Protection of Civilians

Omna Tigray condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the Ethiopian federal government’s aerial bombardment and shelling of civilian areas across Tigray, and calls for the urgent protection of the civilians of Mekelle, the regional capital and most populous city, now under the control of federal forces and allied militias.

Federal forces  entered Mekelle on October 4, 2026, after the Government of Tigray and its armed forces, the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF), withdrew from the city. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political organization that governs Tigray, said it had “temporarily moved out of Mekelle.” The city, home to hundreds of thousands, is now controlled by federal forces and the allied Tigray Peace Forces (TPF).

There is reason for concern for the safety and security of Mekelle’s residents given the history of the 2020 genocidal war on Tigray and the federal government’s military strategy so far.  Mekelle’s capture follows weeks of aerial bombardment that began in early August 2026, well before Tigrayan forces seized regional airports on September 23rd. These bombardments include more than twenty airstrikes in southern Tigray that killed 14 civilians in a single day on September 22, 2026.

Since early August 2026, Ethiopian drones and aircraft have struck schools, homes, a farmer training center, a teachers’ residential compound in Mekelle that wounded 13 civilians, including seven children, and a humanitarian convoy near Sheraro carrying more than 41 metric tons of food for displaced families. On September 25, 2026, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that federal airstrikes had hit five schools in Tigray. As pro-government forces retook Alamata in late September 2026, hospital staff reported at least 52 civilians killed over roughly three days of fighting between September 26 and 29, among them children, mothers, and farmers, with a single strike on the town’s marketplace killing 12 people. Indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects are war crimes.

On October 4, the day Mekelle fell, a drone struck the Adi Abay camp for displaced people in Sheraro, killing at least nine civilians, six of them from a single family across three generations, including a nursing mother and her infant, according to survivors and humanitarian workers. Reports from residents and Tigrayan sources indicate that the bombardment has continued elsewhere, with strikes on Axum, Adwa, Shire, and Adigrat, including Adigrat University and hotels and public infrastructure in Adwa. Telecommunications have been restored in Mekelle following its capture, but much of the rest of Tigray remains cut off and independent media cannot operate, so these reports cannot yet be independently verified. Immediate, independent access to the region is urgently needed.

The gravest danger now is to the civilians of Mekelle and other captured areas. When federal and allied forces last held Tigray, during the 2020 to 2022 war, they carried out mass detentions, extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, and looting, and Tigrayans in Addis Ababa and elsewhere were detained on the basis of their ethnicity. The population of Mekelle must not be subjected to reprisals, house-to-house searches, mass arbitrary detention, or collective punishment. No one should be targeted for their actual or perceived political affiliation; individuals presumed to be linked to the TPLF or the Tigray Defense Forces, and those holding differing political views, must be protected from reprisal and treated in accordance with international humanitarian law.

The fighting has spread into the Afar and Amhara regions, where civilians are equally exposed. Eritrean forces, which committed documented atrocities against Tigrayan civilians during the 2020 to 2022 war, still hold parts of Irob and other border districts; any external military intervention would place civilians in further danger.

Omna Tigray is calling for:

• The Ethiopian federal government: to guarantee the safety of all civilians in Mekelle and other areas under its control, to prevent any reprisals, mass arbitrary detention, house-to-house searches, or collective punishment, to halt the bombardment of Sheraro, Axum, Adwa, Shire, Adigrat, and other population centers, and to restore telecommunications across the rest of Tigray and lift the siege in full by restoring fuel, medicine, and banking;
• All parties to the fighting: to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, allow safe passage for those fleeing, end the forced recruitment and conscription of any civilian or child, refrain from any external military intervention, and comply fully with international humanitarian law across Tigray, Afar, and Amhara;
• The African Union, United Nations, European Union, United States, United Kingdom, and IGAD: to make clear that the capture of Mekelle is not a political settlement and must not be treated as one, to secure immediate and independent access to Mekelle and the cities under bombardment, to press for the full restoration of communications and humanitarian access, and to fully fund the humanitarian and drought response before famine takes hold.

The federal capture of Mekelle in 2020 did not end the war; it was followed by two years of siege, atrocities, and famine that killed at minimum an estimated 600,000 people. The hundreds of thousands of civilians now under the control of federal forces and allied militias, and those in the cities still under bombardment, must not be made to pay that price again. The protection of civilians, independent access to Tigray, and the full restoration of communications, humanitarian aid, and basic services must come before any military or political objective.

Omna Tigray, Press Release, October 5, 2026