TPLF-Fano Coalition Launches Multi-Front Offensive, Seizes Three Tigray Airports

On the morning of Sep 23, 2026, Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) and allied EPFAS coalition fighters launched a coordinated offensive against federal forces across Tigray, Afar, and Amhara. TDF units seized Axum Airport, Shire Airport, and Mekelle's Alula Aba Nega Airport from local police with little resistance, prompting Ethiopian Airlines to suspend all flights to the three cities. New fighting fronts opened along the Tigray-Amhara border (Zata, Dinqa, and Sekota) and the Tigray-Afar border (Tonsa), around Kobo-Tumuga, and in Afar's Abala and Erebti districts, where the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front claimed to have taken Abala and several additional towns (unverified). Fighting also continued along a Tekeze River front near Tselimoy, roughly 60km southwest of Shire in western Tigray. A TPLF central committee member described the situation as 'a full war,' while a senior TPLF official responded to questions about the new alliance by asking, 'We are at war now, aren't we?'