Ethiopian Army Claims 272 Tigrayan Fighters Killed as Fighting Hits North Wollo and Lalibela
The Ethiopian army said Thursday, September 24, 2026, that it had killed 272 Tigrayan fighters and wounded 260 more in a counteroffensive in North Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region, after what the military described as a TPLF assault the day before. The figures come from an Ethiopian National Defense Force statement carried by Arab News and France24, both citing AFP. AFP could not independently verify the casualty numbers, and the army gave no matching count for federal soldiers or civilians.
According to the army statement, Tigray People’s Liberation Front forces attacked several areas of North Wollo, which borders Tigray, and government forces answered with a counteroffensive that the military said caused heavy personnel and equipment losses. Separately, AFP received reports of fighting around Lalibela, also in North Wollo, home to Ethiopia’s medieval rock-hewn churches and a UNESCO World Heritage site. A foreign security source in Ethiopia told AFP that flights at Lalibela’s airport had been suspended as the fighting spread.
The same reporting notes that Fano, the Amhara armed movement that has fought Abiy Ahmed’s Regime since 2023, is now operating alongside the TPLF in parts of the zone. That joint picture matches conflict data published by ACLED on September 24, which listed clashes in Gazgibela woreda of Wag Hemra Zone and in Gidan, Lasta, and Raya Kobo woredas of North Wello, where ENDF and allied forces faced the Amhara Fano National Movement and the Tigray Defense Forces. ACLED also reported joint TDF-AFNM fighting along the Kobo-Tumuga direction.
For Amhara communities in North Wollo and Wag Hemra, Thursday’s army claims sit on top of a war that was already wide before this week’s northern escalation. The authorities in Addis Ababa present the fighting as a successful counterstrike; Tigrayan leaders tell other outlets they are in full-blown war. Independent verification of each local front line and of the 272-killed figure remains limited, even as wire services and conflict monitors agree that North Wollo, including the Lalibela area, is again contested ground.