Redwan Hussien Says He Found a “New Spirit” in Mekelle and Adigrat as Federal Officials Tour Tigray

Zegabi.com
News and Articles

A wide view of Mekelle city with low buildings, trees and distant hills under a pale sky.

Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, seen from Choma in January 2018. Federal officials including Redwan Hussien, Getachew Reda and Dr. Abraham Belay visited Mekelle and Adigrat on Oct. 11, 2026, after Ethiopian Airlines resumed flights. [file photo]

Ethiopia’s intelligence chief, Ambassador Redwan Hussien, said after visiting Mekelle and Adigrat that he had seen a “new spirit,” a different mood, and a deep thirst for peace across Tigray. He traveled on Sunday with Getachew Reda, the adviser to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on East African affairs, and Dr. Abraham Belay, commissioner of the Ethiopian Nuclear Energy Commission, on the first Ethiopian Airlines flight to Mekelle since the carrier halted the route when fighting resumed in late September, BBC Amharic and BBC Tigrinya reported on Monday.

Redwan, director general of the National Intelligence and Security Service, wrote in English and Amharic on social media that his stay in the two cities showed “a new spirit, a different atmosphere, and a different wind of change,” according to BBC Amharic. He said he had seen a “deep thirst for peace” that, in his account, runs through Tigray as a whole, and an “unlimited desire to be heard,” together with a deep longing for real understanding, reconciliation, and a better future. He praised the discipline of the Ethiopian National Defense Force and wrote that after years of what he called severe suffering, weariness, and uncertainty, people in Mekelle and Adigrat showed a strong appetite for a new start. If truth, justice, and real political change take root, he wrote, according to the BBC, the people of Tigray could live in freedom and dignity, hold their own elections, and decide their future. “No one should be allowed to darken this new hope through intrigue,” BBC Amharic quoted him as saying, adding that the new spirit should be strengthened rather than weakened, protected rather than exploited, and turned into lasting peace, freedom, and dignity.

Abraham posted on his Facebook page that “we visited our people who thirst for peace” and that “we will stand with the people and make it lasting,” BBC Amharic reported. He said he had traveled from Mekelle to Adigrat speaking with residents on Oct. 11 and had observed the condition of the towns and the depth of the desire for peace. “My people thirst for peace; they have taken hope,” he wrote, according to the BBC. He also praised what he called the army’s popular spirit and discipline. Getachew, who left Mekelle in March 2025 after a rupture with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front leadership and spent about 19 months in Addis Ababa, posted in Tigrigna that he had returned to Mekelle “after 18 months,” that “we left under compulsion,” and that the delegation had also reached Adigrat. “Next we will reach Adwa, Axum, Shire, Maychew and Alamata, and indeed the countryside and towns of Tigray,” he wrote on X (@reda_getachew). “It is necessary that our people return to their homes and that Tigray as a whole finds peace; and this will happen.”

Before the flight, Getachew told TBS television that Tigray would sit under a federal command post for about six months and then hold a regional election, a plan Zegabi reported on Sunday from BBC Amharic and BBC Tigrinya. The command post’s main tasks, he said then, would be to make the region governable under law, keep security, and support recovery. BBC Tigrinya noted on Monday that it could not independently confirm how residents received the returning officials, and that it had not yet obtained a direct comment from senior TPLF leaders on the visit or the command-post plan. The TPLF has framed federal moves in Tigray as a breach of the 2022 Pretoria agreement; BBC Tigrinya cited an Oct. 3 statement from the Tigray regional president’s office accusing Abiy Ahmed’s regime of launching another round of what it called a genocidal invasion.

The tour comes as federal and Tigray Peace Force units hold Mekelle and have reported taking Adigrat and other towns after TPLF fighters withdrew. AFP and residents have described Eritrean troops moving through Adigrat in recent days and coming under drone attack, claims Eritrea denies and that Zegabi has not independently verified. APA reported on Monday that pro-government forces entered Shire on Friday after the TPLF left, and that four people died in looting-related shooting.

On X, reactions to the officials’ return split. Abrar Suleiman (@AbrarSuleiman), who writes that life is not only black and white, posted in Amharic that Getachew, Abraham and Redwan had received a lively welcome from young people in Mekelle when flights restarted. Natnael Mekonnen (@NatnaelMekonne7) shared Getachew’s message that he had returned to Mekelle after 18 months. An account posting as gizeteshal (@gizeteshal64561), whose bio is empty, wrote that the welcome reflected a spirit of peace, unity, and hope among the youth. Others were harsh. Joe (@JoeTseGy), whose bio includes “#NoJusticeNoPeace #TigrayGenocide,” shared a Tigrigna line calling those who entered Mekelle Airport mixed with civilians “genociders,” attributing the wording to Medhane Gidey. Hanta (@hadushase), who describes himself as Tigrayan and Axumite, mocked banners and slogans he said appeared in Adigrat and tied them to Abraham. Mizer (@MizerTigrewayti), whose bio calls for justice for Tigray, wrote in Tigrigna that “ኣብርሃም በላይ ኣብ በደል ትግራይ ሚዛኑ ምስኒ ኣብይ ኣሕመድ እዩ” (“On the harm done to Tigray, Abraham Belay’s scale is with Abiy Ahmed”). Tseguu (@tseguu), who describes himself as “an Engineer, a lone thinker,” contrasted Getachew’s claim that Tigrayan forces had been brought to their knees with what he called boasting by Abraham. Zegabi could not verify the videos, crowd sizes, or banner claims in these posts.

Redwan’s public message, and Abraham’s and Getachew’s posts from the road between Mekelle and Adigrat, are the clearest statement yet from the federal side about what it wants people in the towns under its control to hear. Whether that message reaches the areas still held by the TPLF, or eases the wider fight with Eritrea, is another question. By Monday morning ET, Asmara had not commented on the Mekelle visit.

Sources