Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia — September 27, 2026
A drone strike hit the headquarters of Tigrai TV in Mekelle early Sunday, damaging the building and knocking the region's most prominent broadcaster off the air, as fighting between Tigrayan forces and Ethiopian federal troops spreads across the north of the country.
What Happened
The strike came at around 6:00 a.m. GMT on Sunday. A journalist at the station told AFP that staff heard a loud explosion from a drone strike elsewhere and fled the building, which was then struck. Photos from a local journalist show the facade blackened and many windows blown out.
The station, which has around 400 employees, went off the air after the attack. One journalist said it stopped transmitting during a live broadcast. No casualties had been reported at the time of writing, and the channel had not yet commented publicly.
Who Launched the Drone?
That has not been confirmed. Some social media posts attribute the strike to the Ethiopian Air Force, but the reporting reviewed for this article does not establish who operated the drone, and no official claim of responsibility appeared. Tigrayan officials have previously accused federal forces of carrying out drone strikes in the region this year, including one on a residential area of Mekelle in August, but those claims have not been independently verified.
A Station Already Under Pressure
The attack came just six days after Ethiopia's media regulator suspended Tigrai TV indefinitely and told other Ethiopian outlets not to rebroadcast or use its material. The regulator accused the station of repeated violations of media law and said some of its content threatened national security and public order.
War Returns to the North
The strike came as heavy fighting resumed between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and federal forces, raising fears that the 2022 Pretoria peace agreement, which ended a 2020–2022 war that killed at least 600,000 people, could collapse.
TPLF-aligned fighters have reportedly advanced into Afar, where a humanitarian source said they took the border town of Erebti after heavy artillery fighting. A TPLF vice president has called the situation a "full-blown war." The Ethiopian military says it has made major battlefield gains, and its army chief accused Eritrea, Sudan and other outside powers of backing the armed groups fighting his troops. Those claims, like most battlefield claims from either side, are difficult to verify independently.
An Information Blackout
Reporting from the region is getting harder. Phone and internet services in Tigray have been badly disrupted since Friday, and with Tigrai TV now off the air, less information is reaching the outside world. Human Rights Watch has already warned of the risks to civilians as fighting spreads across Tigray, Amhara and Afar, and has urged all sides to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.
This is a developing and sensitive story from an active conflict zone. Responsibility for the strike has not been established, communications in the region are disrupted, and claims from all parties are difficult to verify independently.