Internet Disruption Hits Northern Ethiopia as Fighting Continues Toward Amhara
Web monitor NetBlocks said Friday, September 25, 2026, that network data showed a subnational internet disruption in northern Ethiopia matching reports of a telecoms blackout in Tigray, as fighting between forces tied to Abiy Ahmed’s Regime and Tigrayan units continued to spill toward Amhara and Afar. AFP said it could not reach sources in Tigray by phone the same day, according to reporting carried by RFI and Al Jazeera.
The outage has revived fears of a repeat of the communications blackout and supplies blockade that cut Tigray off during the 2020-2022 war. A Tigrayan shopkeeper in Mekelle told AFP on Thursday that people were rushing to stock up because they fear banks, telecom networks, electricity, and basic goods could be cut again. Spokespeople for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office and for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the disruption, according to a Reuters dispatch carried by Devdiscourse.
Al Jazeera, citing Reuters, reported that the TPLF had ordered private operator Safaricom and state-owned Ethio telecom to cut phone and internet access in the region. That claim has not been independently confirmed in the same reports, and a source quoted by Al Jazeera said restrictions might also be meant to blunt federal drone advantages. For Amhara communities living along the northern front in places such as North Wollo and Wag Hemra, where ACLED logged clashes on September 24, a northern communications blackout makes an already contested war harder to follow and harder for relatives to reach.
The authorities in Addis Ababa and Tigrayan leaders still blame each other for this week’s escalation, while NetBlocks’ Friday reading and AFP’s phone failures are the clearest public signal yet that northern Ethiopia is again losing ordinary links to the outside world. Independent monitors have not yet published a full map of which Amhara towns outside Tigray are also offline.