Tigray goes dark again as fighting resumes
Shutdowns · 25.09.2026

In Tigray, northern Ethiopia, the shooting has started again — and, as usual, the first thing to go was communications. NetBlocks has recorded a regional shutdown: services from the state operator Ethio Telecom are completely cut off. The private carrier Safaricom is still holding on — apparently not state-owned enough for anyone to think of switching it off too.

Reuters sources say the blackout was arranged by the TPLF — the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which controls the region. There's one version of events: communications were cut to hamper government drones. The TPLF itself hasn't commented at all — silence is its own kind of message.

Meanwhile, the region has had almost no cash for eight months already: ATMs don't work, and people live on mobile banking apps running through the networks of those same companies, Ethio Telecom and Safaricom. Cut the internet, and you cut off the last access to money too. A humanitarian worker in Mekelle put it bluntly: this will be devastating for everyone. A resident of the city describes what's happening as a curfew — just one without an official announcement.

Fighting between Tigrayan forces and federal troops began on Wednesday, and there are reports of panic buying. At the same time, clashes are underway near the town of Abala on the border with Afar, involving drone strikes, and near Lalibela in Amhara, home to a UNESCO World Heritage site — the rock-hewn churches. The US has already advised against traveling to all three regions at once.

Worth remembering: during the 2020–2022 war, Tigray was completely cut off from the outside world, and the shortage of money, food, and medicine pushed the region to the brink of famine. About 600,000 people died — one of the bloodiest conflicts of this century. So the current shutdown isn't some abstract "information security" measure — it's the first step, one that's painfully familiar from last time.

On Sunday, the TPLF announced an alliance with six other armed groups against the government, and on Wednesday its fighters seized three airports from federal police. In response, Ethiopian Airlines canceled all flights to Tigray. Communications cut, planes grounded, ATMs empty — the usual package for a region once again standing on the edge.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqp8dxxg325no