As conflict reignites in northern Ethiopia, questions around accountability ensue across borders.

Every evening after work, Mekdi Yilma calls her mother, Seble Beyene, in Addis Ababa from her home in Palo Alto, California. For the past five years the calls have followed the same pattern: first the news from the north of ongoing conflict between the Amhara and Tigray region, followed by a daily catch up on the lives they lead apart. 

Nearly four years after the Pretoria peace agreement ended the 2020–2022 Tigray war, Ethiopia is sliding back into large-scale conflict. On Sept. 20, seven armed groups, including the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the Amhara Fano militias that once fought alongside federal troops against it, and the Oromo Liberation Army, announced the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival, with the stated aim of overthrowing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government. Four days later, the TPLF declared Tigray to be in a “full blown war” with the federal government.

Beyene has been following the fighting through the evening news via her satellite TV and reports from neighbors since phone and internet service across Tigray went dark last Friday, “The last time we have seen conflict reach this level, we lost two years of our country to war.” This harsh reality has been top of mind for her daughter Yilma who has not last visited Ethiopia since she immigrated to the states 14 years ago to become a machine learning engineer. Despite her distance from the conflict, it has touched every corner of the Ethiopian community back home and those who migrated to the States.  “During the war nobody outside Ethiopia seemed to take notice, the pandemic was taking hold of the media outlets, and I am afraid nobody is watching what is taking place now,” Yilma said.

Fighting has since spread into Amhara and Afar. Tigrayan forces seized three regional airports and Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights. The UN Human Rights Office reported that federal airstrikes, some reportedly carried out by drones, hit five schools in Tigray on September 22. It has also documented allegations that the TPLF is forcibly recruiting civilians, including children. In Afar alone, a humanitarian source estimated that at least 150,000 people have been displaced.

The renewed fighting lands on a population that never recovered from the last war. A two year conflict that killed up to 600,000 people, by some estimates, yet drew a fraction of the global attention given to wars in Syria or Ukraine. For many Ethiopians, the answer to war and economic collapse has been to leave. That has been something Yilma has thought deeply about, “Bringing my mother to the US has been a constant battle, even now that I hold a green card it is difficult for me to reconcile with and convince my mother to abandon the only life she knows.” 

In 2025, the International Organization for Migration recorded nearly 1,000 deaths and disappearances along the “Eastern Route” from the Horn of Africa through Djibouti and Yemen toward Saudi Arabia, double the year before and the deadliest year since monitoring began in 2014 with Ethiopians making up 97% of migrants tracked on the route. In 2023, Human Rights Watch accused Saudi border guards of killing hundreds of Ethiopian migrants attempting to cross from Yemen, a charge the Saudi government has denied.

“I was privileged in the sense that I came with a visa, a plane ticket, and a university to call home to,” Yilma said. Beyene expressed how proud she is of her daughter but worries about abandoning her country. “Mekdi was lucky. She had a way out that was safe, but most young people here are not as fortunate.” 

The Ethiopian government has turned around to blame foreign powers for the escalation. Abiy’s spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, said the alliance had been operating with financial backing from neighboring Eritrea, and the army chief has accused Egypt and Sudan of supporting the rebels.

For Beyene, the question is not who is to blame but whether anyone will be held accountable this time, “After the last war, we were told there would be justice. That was quickly forgotten. Instead, there is another war and the world should not look away again.”

Sources:

“As Fighting Intensifies, Humanitarian Source Estimates at Least 150,000 Displaced in Afar, Tigray TV Hit by Drone.” Addis Standard, 28 September 2026. Addis Standard article

Council on Foreign Relations. “Conflict in Ethiopia.” Global Conflict Tracker, updated 25 September 2026. CFR Global Conflict Tracker

“Former Enemies Form Alliance to Overthrow Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed.” Agence France-Presse, via inkl, 21 September 2026. Inkl Article

International Crisis Group. “Arresting the Dangerous Descent Back into War in Northern Ethiopia.” International Crisis Group, September 2026. Crisis Group statement

“Seven Ethiopian Armed Groups Announce Anti-Government Alliance.” Reuters, via U.S. News & World Report, 21 September 2026. U.S. News article