A truck carrying men in military-style uniforms passes bystanders on a town street

Drone Strikes Reported on Eritrean Troops Near Adigrat as Residents Say Tigray Forces Left Shire

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A truck carrying men in military-style uniforms passes bystanders on a town street

A truck carrying men in military-style uniforms passes bystanders on a town street in one of two images AfriMEOSINT posted on X on Oct. 7, 2026, with a post saying Eritrean troops had deployed around Adigrat and that footage purportedly showed them entering Idaga Hamus, Tigray. Where and when the image was taken could not be independently verified. (Photo: AfriMEOSINT / X) [file photo]

Ethiopian drone strikes hit Eritrean troops and ammunition around the Tigray city of Adigrat overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, the conflict monitor ACLED and residents told AFP, a day after Eritrean soldiers were reported moving south from the border toward Idaga Hamus.

ACLED said “Eritrean troops and ammunition” in the Adigrat area were hit by “multiple drone strikes.” One witness who spoke on condition of anonymity told AFP there were “many, many drone strikes yesterday. Some Eritrean lorries have been destroyed. They are no longer in the streets.” Another Adigrat resident said they heard a “massive explosion during the night” and “saw Eritrean military vehicles that had been hit by a drone.” A third said Eritrean troops appeared to be retreating north. Neither the Ethiopian federal government nor the authorities in Asmara answered AFP’s questions about the fighting.

Separately, ACLED’s East Africa analyst Jalale Getachew Birru told The National that Eritrean troops had crossed at Zalambessa and that “Ethiopian National Defence Forces drones targeted Eritrean troops at Guada as they travelled by vehicle towards Idaga Hamus.” The Associated Press, citing the same monitor, reported the Guada strikes as well. AP said it could not independently verify the accounts and that ACLED had not answered an inquiry Thursday morning about the basis for its claims.

Ermiyas Ababu, a Tigray Peace Force commander based in Mekelle, told AP that Eritrean personnel entered Adigrat on Tuesday and Idaga Hamus on Wednesday, and that Eritrean officers were conducting surveillance in Idaga Hamus, citing reports from his fighters. Residents of Adigrat had earlier told Reuters they saw two military vehicles carrying dozens of Eritrean soldiers pass through the town on Wednesday morning. The Tigray Peace Force imposed an overnight curfew in Mekelle on Wednesday after federal and allied fighters entered the regional capital over the weekend.

Government Communication Minister Enatalem Melese demanded that foreign forces leave. “All foreign military forces operating within our sovereign territory must withdraw immediately,” Enatalem said, according to The National.

Yemane G. Meskel, Eritrea’s information minister, writing on X on Wednesday as @hawelti, accused Abiy Ahmed’s Regime of packaging a Red Sea war agenda as “self-defense.” He wrote that the federal side was “creating a fallacious narrative of ‘self-defense’ to rationalize and camouflage its war of aggression,” and that senior Ethiopian officials had spoken of installing a flag on the Red Sea and of Assab as an “ultimate destination.” He did not specifically address the Adigrat drone reports in that post. Asmara has denied backing the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

In northwestern Tigray, two Shire residents, Mesu’ud Ahmed and Abadi Halefom, told AP by telephone Wednesday evening that they had seen TPLF forces withdraw earlier that day. Federal troops and their allies had not entered when they spoke. “TPLF left but the government forces and their allies did not enter the town but we hear that they are coming,” Mesu’ud said. “Everyone has closed their shops in Shire, and moved their merchandise for fear of looting.” Shire has been a major refuge for displaced people and a base for aid work.

On X, the Africa-focused account Intelynx (@Intelynx) posted at 6:06 AM ET on Thursday that an Adigrat resident told AFP there were “numerous drone strikes” overnight, that “Eritrean trucks were destroyed,” that Eritrean soldiers were “no longer in the streets of Adigrat,” and that “rumor has it they fled into the hills” north of the city. Yohannes (@Yohannes_T_M), quoted ACLED’s line about troops and ammunition being hit and asked at 8:13 AM ET, “Can you now tell us whether the war has officially ‘started’?” and questioned AFP’s use of ACLED as a source. The Ethiopian Conflict Map (@Ethiomapping), which tracks the fighting in real time, wrote at 9:22 AM ET that the Ethiopian National Defense Force “will likely secure the B-30 all the way to Shire if not the city itself today,” saying it saw “no TPLF-TDF resistance in inda abaguna.” Zegabi could not verify that assessment. An X account posting as Tigray Peace Forces (@TigrayPeaceF) claimed at 6:10 AM ET that “#Shire welcomes TPF-ENDF” and that “the warlords who made our children’s blood their lifeline are gone,” language Zegabi could not confirm.

Daniel Daba (@dany_daba) posted a long Amharic thread at 1:23 AM ET under the headline, in translation, that Eritrean troops “could not return to Eritrea” and that “leaving was not as easy as entering,” according to “eyewitnesses.” He listed ten claimed points from Tigray, including drone hits at Guada and between Adigrat and Fatsi, burned military vehicles, and a purported quote from an Eritrean soldier about fire from the sky. Zegabi could not verify them.

The strikes come days after Abiy Ahmed’s Regime closed its embassy in Asmara and expelled 10 Eritrean diplomats, and Eritrea cut diplomatic ties. The federal government in Addis Ababa accuses Eritrea of fighting beside the TPLF; Asmara says landlocked Ethiopia is hunting a pretext to reach the Red Sea. Eritrean troops fought beside Ethiopia in the 2020 to 2022 Tigray war, which killed an estimated 600,000 people, according to the African Union.

Sources