{"id":179386,"date":"2026-09-25T09:39:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/179386"},"modified":"2026-09-25T09:39:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:39:39","slug":"ethiopian-govt-forces-battle-overnight-around-abala-as-fighting-presses-afar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/179386","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopian Gov\u2019t Forces Battle Overnight Around Abala as Fighting Presses Afar"},"content":{"rendered":"

A humanitarian source in Afar told AFP that Ethiopian federal forces fought overnight into Friday, September 25, 2026, to keep Tigrayan fighters from entering the mountain border town of Abala, and that the army used a drone during the pushback, according to reporting by RFI<\/a> and Arab News<\/a>. The same source described \u201cheavy fighting overnight\u201d around Abala, which sits on the Tigray-Afar frontier along routes that matter for northern supply lines.<\/p>\n

Analysts say the Afar offensive fits a wider pattern from the last northern war, when Tigrayan forces tried to press toward corridors that feed Ethiopia from Djibouti. Edward Bach of Verisk Maplecroft told AFP that the new alliance of armed groups is likely trying to seize settlements beside key infrastructure routes in order to weaken the federal government\u2019s ability to supply its forces. Almost all of Ethiopia\u2019s international trade cargo, including fuel, still moves through Djibouti.<\/p>\n

\"Northern
Northern Ethiopia borderlands including areas near Tigray and Afar. Map for location context. Credit: Wikimedia Commons \/ Zegabi media library.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thursday\u2019s fighting had already spread into Amhara\u2019s North Wollo Zone, including areas around Lalibela, while ACLED<\/a> listed clashes in Wag Hemra and North Wello where federal-aligned units face the Amhara Fano National Movement and the Tigray Defense Forces. For Amhara communities already living under a multi-year Fano war with Abiy Ahmed\u2019s Regime, overnight battles in neighbouring Afar add another northern pressure point even when the town named in Friday\u2019s wire reports is across the regional border.<\/p>\n

The Ethiopian federal government holds a large drone arsenal and a much bigger regular army, AFP noted, while Tigrayan leaders say they are in full-blown war after this week\u2019s airport seizures and cross-border attacks. Casualty figures for the Abala overnight fighting were not published in the Friday humanitarian account, and neither side\u2019s battlefield claims have been independently verified in those reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A humanitarian source in Afar told AFP that Ethiopian federal forces fought overnight into Friday, September 25, 2026, to keep Tigrayan fighters from entering the mountain border town of Abala, and that the army used a drone during the pushback,…<\/span> Read more ›<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":179383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4993],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/post2-featured-afar.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179386"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}