Drone strikes rock Addis Ababa as Ethiopia's internal war flares anew

On 1 October 2026 suspected drone strikes struck targets inside Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, including an area close to the national military headquarters, in one of the most brazen attacks on the heart of government since the 2020-2022 Tigray war. The strikes coincided with — and sharply intensified — Ethiopia's diplomatic rupture with Eritrea the same day, when Addis Ababa expelled ten Eritrean diplomats and accused Asmara of financing the Tigray People's Liberation Front. Ethiopian officials pointed to renewed fighting in the north and framed the drone attacks as further evidence of foreign-backed destabilisation. Residents reported explosions in several districts; authorities did not immediately disclose a casualty toll. The strikes raised fears that the Tigray conflict, nominally ended by the 2022 Pretoria agreement, was reigniting into a wider regional confrontation involving Eritrea and potentially Egypt, which has long opposed Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project. The African Union called urgently for restraint, warning that a slide back to open war in the Horn of Africa would be devastating.