Breaking, 24 September 2026: Amhara Fano forces and Tigray’s TPLF army have reportedly moved on Lalibela Airport in the Amhara region after heavy fighting around the site this morning.
Ethiopian Airlines has suspended flights to Lalibela, including Flight ET122, which did not arrive as scheduled. This follows Tigray forces taking over the airports of Mekelle, Axum, and Shire on the night of 22–23 September 2026, after heavy Ethiopian Air Force bombings and drone strikes.
Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to those three airports on 23 September.
On 22 September, more than 20 drone strikes were reported across Tigray, mainly in the south, including a strike in Alamata.
Those attacks came after a drone strike on 20 September on a Catholic Relief Services humanitarian convoy near Adi-Daero in northwestern Tigray, which destroyed about 41 tons of food aid bound for displaced people in Sheraro and injured a 13-year-old girl.
Capturing or denying the use of major airports in the Amhara and Tigray regions would block the Ethiopian Air Force from using those local airfields for airstrikes against rebel forces.