{"id":179525,"date":"2026-10-08T09:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T13:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/?p=179525"},"modified":"2026-10-08T09:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T13:57:14","slug":"drone-strikes-reported-on-eritrean-troops-near-adigrat-as-residents-say-tigray-forces-left-shire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/179525","title":{"rendered":"Drone Strikes Reported on Eritrean Troops Near Adigrat as Residents Say Tigray Forces Left Shire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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]<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

ACLED said \u201cEritrean troops and ammunition\u201d in the Adigrat area were hit by \u201cmultiple drone strikes.\u201d One witness who spoke on condition of anonymity told AFP there were \u201cmany, many drone strikes yesterday. Some Eritrean lorries have been destroyed. They are no longer in the streets.\u201d Another Adigrat resident said they heard a \u201cmassive explosion during the night\u201d and \u201csaw Eritrean military vehicles that had been hit by a drone.\u201d A third said Eritrean troops appeared to be retreating north. Neither the Ethiopian federal government nor the authorities in Asmara answered AFP\u2019s questions about the fighting.<\/p>\n

Separately, ACLED\u2019s East Africa analyst Jalale Getachew Birru told The National that Eritrean troops had crossed at Zalambessa and that \u201cEthiopian National Defence Forces drones targeted Eritrean troops at Guada as they travelled by vehicle towards Idaga Hamus.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Government Communication Minister Enatalem Melese demanded that foreign forces leave. \u201cAll foreign military forces operating within our sovereign territory must withdraw immediately,\u201d Enatalem said, according to The National.<\/p>\n

Yemane G. Meskel, Eritrea\u2019s information minister, writing on X on Wednesday as @hawelti<\/a>, accused Abiy Ahmed\u2019s Regime of packaging a Red Sea war agenda as \u201cself-defense.\u201d He wrote that the federal side was \u201ccreating a fallacious narrative of \u2018self-defense\u2019 to rationalize and camouflage its war of aggression,\u201d and that senior Ethiopian officials had spoken of installing a flag on the Red Sea and of Assab as an \u201cultimate destination.\u201d He did not specifically address the Adigrat drone reports in that post. Asmara has denied backing the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front (TPLF).<\/p>\n

In northwestern Tigray, two Shire residents, Mesu\u2019ud 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. \u201cTPLF left but the government forces and their allies did not enter the town but we hear that they are coming,\u201d Mesu\u2019ud said. \u201cEveryone has closed their shops in Shire, and moved their merchandise for fear of looting.\u201d Shire has been a major refuge for displaced people and a base for aid work.<\/p>\n

On X, the Africa-focused account Intelynx (@Intelynx<\/a>) posted at 6:06 AM ET on Thursday that an Adigrat resident told AFP there were \u201cnumerous drone strikes\u201d overnight, that \u201cEritrean trucks were destroyed,\u201d that Eritrean soldiers were \u201cno longer in the streets of Adigrat,\u201d and that \u201crumor has it they fled into the hills\u201d north of the city. Yohannes (@Yohannes_T_M<\/a>), quoted ACLED\u2019s line about troops and ammunition being hit and asked at 8:13 AM ET, \u201cCan you now tell us whether the war has officially \u2018started\u2019?\u201d and questioned AFP\u2019s use of ACLED as a source. The Ethiopian Conflict Map (@Ethiomapping<\/a>), which tracks the fighting in real time, wrote at 9:22 AM ET that the Ethiopian National Defense Force \u201cwill likely secure the B-30 all the way to Shire if not the city itself today,\u201d saying it saw \u201cno TPLF-TDF resistance in inda abaguna.\u201d Zegabi could not verify that assessment. An X account posting as Tigray Peace Forces (@TigrayPeaceF<\/a>) claimed at 6:10 AM ET that \u201c#Shire welcomes TPF-ENDF\u201d and that \u201cthe warlords who made our children\u2019s blood their lifeline are gone,\u201d language Zegabi could not confirm.<\/p>\n

Daniel Daba (@dany_daba<\/a>) posted a long Amharic thread at 1:23 AM ET under the headline, in translation, that Eritrean troops \u201ccould not return to Eritrea\u201d and that \u201cleaving was not as easy as entering,\u201d according to \u201ceyewitnesses.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

The strikes come days after Abiy Ahmed\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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