Eritrean troops push deep into Ethiopia's Tigray as residents report large military convoys heading south

Residents of the northern Ethiopian town of Adigrat say Eritrean soldiers have crossed the border and are advancing through the Tigray region toward areas where fighting has erupted between Ethiopia's national army and regional forces, according to accounts gathered by the BBC.

The reports, published on 7 October 2026, come two weeks after hostilities broke out in Tigray following a prolonged standoff between the federal government in Addis Ababa and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that runs the region. Both sides have accused one another of breaking the 2022 agreement that brought a close to a brutal two-year civil war.

Ethiopia has gone further, alleging that Eritrea is providing support to the TPLF — a charge officials in Asmara have rejected in the past. The accusations sit within a fast-moving sequence of events that began in September, when a fresh alliance of armed groups opposed to the Ethiopian government was unveiled, with the TPLF among its members.

The latest upheaval has also destabilised ties between two neighbouring states. Addis Ababa has accused Eritrea of backing the Tigrayan front, and last week the two countries moved to sever diplomatic relations entirely, a step taken as renewed fighting prompted alarm about the potential for a broader regional war.

Over the weekend, TPLF fighters pulled out of Mekelle, Tigray's principal city, which lies about 115km (71 miles) south of Adigrat. Government troops now hold the regional capital, and authorities have restored mobile phone and internet service to most of the surrounding area since taking control.

According to several separate accounts, Eritrean units have advanced from the border settlement of Zalambessa toward the Tigrayan interior, with convoys spotted passing through Adigrat and making for Edaga Hamus, a town situated between Adigrat and Mekelle.

One Adigrat resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of safety fears, described a column of roughly 40 troop-laden trucks rolling southward through the town. A second inhabitant said the movement began under cover of darkness, with vehicles bearing Eritrean registration plates threading through the streets before a daytime sighting of some 20 to 30 large trucks bound for Edaga Hamus.

That same witness added that people travelling along the corridor had spotted further vehicles transporting heavy weaponry, among them anti-aircraft guns, and that some soldiers were advancing on foot rather than by vehicle.

A contact in Mekelle relayed what relatives in Adigrat had described as an even larger deployment, estimating that as many as 60 trucks carrying troops had passed through before the personnel were unloaded and positioned in the mountainous ground close to Edaga Hamus.

Images circulating on social media appear to show military trucks laden with uniformed personnel travelling toward Adigrat, Edaga Hamus and possibly Wukro, another significant town on the route linking Adigrat and the regional capital. The BBC stressed that it has not independently authenticated the footage.

Sources in Wukro said that federal soldiers and allied fighters entered the town on Wednesday following an exchange of heavy fire roughly 15km to its south. The broadcaster has been unable to verify any of the reported troop movements independently, and its journalists cannot currently report from Tigray or nearby areas.

The possible return of Eritrean forces has intensified fear among Tigray's population, with residents invoking the abuses allegedly carried out by Eritrean soldiers during the 2020-2022 war, when they fought alongside Ethiopia against the TPLF. One Adigrat inhabitant said the sight of those troops again was emotionally painful, adding that the memories remained vivid and that people were distressed to see them back.

A resident of Edaga Hamus, meanwhile, reported Eritrean soldiers moving through the town and said drone strikes had taken place in the vicinity, with troops targeted.

Eritrea's role in the region has shifted dramatically in a short space of time. During the 2020-2022 conflict, Asmara was a crucial partner for landlocked Ethiopia, deploying forces against the Tiplam — a war ranked among the deadliest anywhere in this century and one that pushed Tigray to the brink of famine.

Since then, the relationship has soured considerably, largely because of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's stated ambition to secure access to one of Eritrea's Red Sea ports. Ethiopia lost its own coastline when Eritrea seceded in 1993, and the issue remains a deeply sensitive point of friction between the two states.

Senior Ethiopian government official Abraham Belay, speaking to the private Fana Television, accused Eritrea of taking a direct role in the fighting, claiming its army had engaged "with its full capacity and logistics" and that many Eritrean personnel had been killed or captured. He warned that the response from Ethiopia would be correspondingly forceful.

The convergence of an armed rebellion, collapsing relations between neighbouring governments and unverified but consistent reports of foreign troop movements has raised the stakes considerably. With communications still restricted and no independent access to the region, the scale and direction of the Eritrean deployment remain unclear — but for residents of Tigray, the prospect of another war is already painfully familiar.