{"id":46347,"date":"2026-09-24T09:48:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T07:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=46347"},"modified":"2026-09-24T09:48:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T07:48:39","slug":"new-war-with-ethiopian-government-has-begun-tigrayan-leaders","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/new-war-with-ethiopian-government-has-begun-tigrayan-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"New war with Ethiopian government has begun: Tigrayan Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Forces from the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray launched a major offensive against the federal government on Wednesday, a senior Ethiopian official said, \u200bshattering a four-year-old peace deal and threatening a wider regional conflict.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Tigray&#8217;s leaders said in a statement they had entered a &#8220;defensive&#8221; war to counter aggression by the federal government.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A \u200ccivil war that began in 2020 between the Tigray People&#8217;s Liberation Front (TPLF) and federal forces resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths before the Pretoria Agreement, brokered by the African Union, was signed in November 2022.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The new hostilities follow months of growing animosity between the two sides, capped by Sunday&#8217;s announcement that the TPLF had formed an alliance with six other armed groups from across Ethiopia aimed at overthrowing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed&#8217;s government.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The TPLF-led regional administration said there had \u200bbeen an &#8220;intensification of the invasion conducted through various methods&#8221; by Abiy&#8217;s government against the people of Tigray.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The Tigray Forces have been instructed to counter the attack and have entered a defensive \u200bwar,&#8221; it said in a statement.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Getachew Reda, an adviser to Abiy and a former TPLF official, wrote on X that the TPLF had seized control \u2060of federally controlled airports in Tigray and launched an &#8220;all-out offensive&#8221; against government positions in the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The TPLF politico-military leadership has obviously taken irresponsibility to new heights,&#8221; he said.<br \/>\nEthiopian \u200bAirlines suspended flights to the region.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22449,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-46347","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Tigray's leaders said in a statement they had entered a \"defensive\" war to counter aggression by the federal government.","published_date":"","news_description":"Tigray's leaders said in a statement they had entered a \"defensive\" war to counter aggression by the federal government.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46348,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46347\/revisions\/46348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=46347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}