Federal Forces Enter Adigrat, Residents Say, as Ethiopia and Eritrea Take Their Dispute to the UN Security Council

Pickup truck with an Ethiopian flag in a street, frame from a Tigray Peace Force video posted by Thomas van Linge

Federal Forces Enter Adigrat, Residents Say, as Ethiopia and Eritrea Take Their Dispute to the UN Security Council

October 10, 2026

News and Articles

A pickup truck flying an Ethiopian flag drives through a street in a frame from a video carrying the Tigray Peace Force logo and the Tigrigna words “People of Adigrat,” which journalist Thomas van Linge posted on X on Oct. 10, 2026, saying government forces had taken the city. When the video was filmed could not be independently verified. (Photo: Tigray Peace Force video via Thomas van Linge / X)

Ethiopian government forces and allied fighters entered Adigrat on Saturday morning, three residents told Reuters, days after Eritrean troops who had been seen in the northern Tigray city pulled back under drone fire. One of the residents said they saw soldiers on patrol along with military vehicles. Reuters said it could not confirm whether the army was in control of Adigrat, which lies about 30 km from the Eritrean border, and Ethiopia’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The move into Adigrat came a day after the federal government in Addis Ababa told the United Nations Security Council that it was taking measures in self-defense against Eritrea. In a letter dated Friday and obtained by The Associated Press, Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos invoked Article 51 of the UN Charter and accused Eritrea of sending infantry and mechanized units across the border in recent weeks and of supporting, financing, arming and directing insurgent groups. AP said the letter did not name the areas it described as occupied and did not offer evidence. Reuters, which also saw the letter, reported that Gedion wrote that Eritrean troops had advanced up to 60 km (37 miles) into Tigray. “The all-out invasion of parts of northern Ethiopia by Eritrea is a matter of public record,” the letter said. “It is a blatant act of aggression that engages Ethiopia’s inherent right to self-defence.”

Eritrea answered on Saturday with a letter of its own. Yemane G. Meskel, Eritrea’s information minister, posted on X at 8:40 AM ET what he said was the text of a letter from Foreign Minister Osman Saleh to the Security Council. It called the self-defense argument of Abiy Ahmed’s regime “hollow in substance” and “an insult to the intelligence of the international community,” and asked the council to “forcefully condemn Ethiopia’s deplorable declaration of war against Eritrea” and to take measures against it under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. A day earlier Yemane had said in a statement on X, quoted by Reuters, that “the Ethiopian regime has been pursuing, in effect, an unprovoked war of aggression against Eritrea for more than three years,” pointing to Ethiopian officials’ talk of sea access and the port of Assab. Reuters reported that Eritrea has called reports of an incursion false, while AP noted that Yemane’s Friday post did not explicitly confirm or deny the reported crossings.

The US-based conflict monitor ACLED has said Ethiopia used drone strikes against Eritrean forces near Adigrat on Wednesday and Thursday, after which the Eritrean troops withdrew from positions near the city. An Adigrat resident told Reuters they heard repeated explosions overnight into Friday morning several kilometers outside town. A foreign security source, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, estimated that 5,000 to 8,000 Eritrean soldiers were present in Tigray.

The UN Secretary-General said in a statement issued by his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, on Friday that he was “gravely concerned by the renewed fighting in the Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions” and “further concerned by reports of the presence of Eritrean forces in Ethiopia.” He called on all parties to stop fighting immediately and urged the signatories to return to dialogue under the Pretoria Agreement.

Federal troops have taken a string of towns across Tigray this week. Ermiyas Ababu, a commander of the Tigray Peace Force, which fights alongside the federal army, told AP that government and allied forces took Idaga Hamus early on Friday and Abiy-Adi, in the Tembien area, on Thursday afternoon. Gebremedhin Kihishen, a business owner in Tembien, told AP that the government side controlled Abiy-Adi. In Shire, an aid worker told AFP that Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters and the local administration left on Wednesday. “Looters are operating in the city, and four people were killed and 11 injured in an exchange of gunfire related to the looting,” he said. A Tigrayan official from a dissident TPLF faction told AFP the rebels were falling back toward Sheraro (also spelled Shiraro), near the Eritrean border.

“Many are defecting and going back to their villages,” Kjetil Tronvoll, a regional specialist at Oslo New University College, told AFP, describing a TPLF with low morale. “I do not believe (Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed) will stop at the border,” Tronvoll said.

In Mekelle, federal police called over loudspeakers on Friday for residents to help set up a new administration, AP reported, while government offices stayed shut. Ethiopian Airlines has said flights to the regional capital will resume on Sunday. On Saturday the National Rehabilitation Commission named reception points for fighters who want to lay down their arms, among them Adigrat and Wukro in the Eastern Zone, Mekelle, Maichew, Mehoni, Adwa, Axum, Abi Adi and Shire, the state-run Ethiopian News Agency reported. Deputy Commissioner Brigadier General Derbie Mekuriaw urged TPLF leaders, commanders and fighters to take what he called a final opportunity to return to peace, and said people accused of crimes would face accountability procedures.

On X, journalist Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) wrote at 5:38 AM ET on Saturday that “government forces have seized control of the city of Adigrat,” posting a video carrying the Tigray Peace Force logo and adding, “Eritrean troops are nowhere to be found.” The Ethiopian Conflict Map (@Ethiomapping), which tracks the fighting, said at 6:27 AM ET that the forces “entered the southern outskirts (industry area) yesterday.” Selam Tigray (@TigraySelm77126) wrote in Tigrigna at 7:42 AM ET that the Tigray Peace Force had reached Adigrat, “our Agame,” and asked, “Has the TPLF just vanished?” Semira Jamal (@Semibintjemal3) wrote in Tigrigna on Friday that “for this great army, the final result does not end at Adigrat; its stage is Asmara and Assab!” An account posting as Pulp Faction (@DanielsonKassa1) shared a video at 8:03 AM ET that it said showed crowds in Adigrat chanting “down TPLF…down down Woyane” as federal and Tigray Peace Force troops patrolled. Another user, Calvin (@CalvinBrooks87), wrote late on Friday that “Addis Ababa is announcing victories faster than anyone can verify them,” adding that “phones and the internet stay cut off.” The US Embassy said on Thursday that telecommunications had resumed in Mekelle and much of Tigray, subject to interruption, AP reported. Zegabi could not verify the videos or the claims in these posts.

Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a border war from 1998 to 2000 and made peace in 2018, and Eritrean troops fought beside federal forces in the 2020 to 2022 Tigray war. Researchers at Ghent University in Belgium estimated that war caused about 500,000 civilian deaths in Tigray from violence, famine and the collapse of health services, AP reported. Eritrea announced last week it was severing diplomatic ties after Abiy Ahmed’s government expelled 10 Eritrean diplomats and closed its embassy in Asmara, AP reported.

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