Ethiopian forces retake strategic town of Sekota as northern conflict widens

Ethiopia's national army has reportedly recaptured the strategic town of Sekota from Tigrayan fighters, according to reports, in a development that points to a widening of hostilities across the country's northern and northeastern regions. The fighting is now described as spreading through Amhara, Tigray and Afar, areas that share long, porous borders and have been the scene of repeated military confrontations since 2020.

Sekota, a historic trading centre in the North Shewa zone of Amhara region, has long been treated as a crossroads of northern Ethiopia. Its market has historically drawn traders and livestock merchants from neighbouring zones, and the roads that link it to the lowlands to the east have made it a natural chokepoint for any military movement through the area. Control of Sekota gives a force a staging point with access to routes running both northwards towards Tigray and southwards into the Amhara heartland, which is why the town's changing hands carries significance well beyond its modest population.

The claim of a recapture has not been independently confirmed, and details of the operation remain unclear. Neither the Ethiopian government nor the Tigrayan side has provided a detailed public account of how the town changed hands, how many fighters were involved, or what the fighting cost in casualties. Al Jazeera's report did not supply specifics on the scale of the engagement or on the current disposition of forces, and account of the wider battlefield picture remain limited. Such information gaps are a recurring feature of Ethiopia's northern conflicts, where fighting often takes place in remote, mountainous districts far from the reach of international monitors and independent media.

Geography complicates verification. Amhara, Tigray and Afar are among the least densely populated and most rugged parts of Ethiopia, with poor road networks, erratic telecommunications and a monsoon season that can cut off access for weeks at a time. Satellite imagery and local civilian accounts are often the only windows onto events on the ground, and both are slow and imperfect. Analysts caution that front lines in such terrain can move quickly without generating the kind of confirmed reporting that allows outsiders to measure what has changed.

The escalation follows the formation of an alliance of seven armed groups said to be seeking to overthrow Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government. Reports on the new coalition have not, so far, offered a public roster or a joint statement laying out its political programme, and the extent to which the groups are militarily coordinated remains uncertain. What is clear is that a multi-group front would represent a significant departure from recent patterns in which fighting has generally been conducted by one or two armed movements at a time, often in discrete regional theatres.

The current instability is the product of a long chain of unresolved political disputes. Ahmed came to power in 2018 on a platform of unifying Ethiopia's ethnically federal system, and his early years were marked by an ambitious peace process with Eritrea and by overtures to exiled opposition groups. A parallel attempt to absorb Tigray-based rivals through a show of federal strength instead triggered a devastating war in November 2020 that lasted nearly two years and ended with a Pretoria-brokered agreement in November 2022.

Since that agreement, the process of restoring stability has proved far slower than the fighting did. Provisions calling for the demobilisation and integration of Tigrayan forces have been contested, political questions about the future shape of federal power — including the autonomy of ethnic regions — remain unresolved, and disputes over the sequencing of elections and the return of displaced people have repeatedly resurfaced. Disagreements about who controls regional security forces have kept tensions high, and in Amhara the long-running push by the Fano movement for full regional autonomy has continued to collide with federal directives on security and revenue.

Afar, meanwhile, has been drawn back into a cycle of its own. The region, which borders Eritrea to the north and sits astride key transport corridors near the Red Sea approaches, saw intermittent violence and a significant federal military operation in 2024 tied to competing armed factions and long-running territorial claims. Fighting in Afar has the potential to disrupt trade routes used by humanitarian agencies and to add pressure to a humanitarian system that is already stretched.

Analysts have long warned that Ethiopia's internal conflicts do not stay contained. The country's central highlands feed into a wider set of flashpoints spanning the Horn of Africa, and neighbouring states — including Eritrea, Sudan, Djibouti and Somaliland — have their own security interests in the stability of the region. Any prolonged contest in Amhara, Tigray and Afar simultaneously would raise questions about refugee flows, cross-border trade, and the security of aid corridors feeding one of the most drought-prone parts of Africa.

The humanitarian consequences are the most immediate concern. Millions of people across Ethiopia's northern regions have been displaced at various points since 2020, and repeated outbreaks of violence make it harder for aid agencies to reach isolated communities, distribute food and medicine, and repair basic services such as water, sanitation and health facilities. Appeals for funding have chronically underperformed against need, and humanitarian workers face growing restrictions on access as insecurity spreads.

For the government in Addis Ababa, the recapture of Sekota would be a welcome tactical result at a moment of heightened political strain. It offers evidence that federal forces retain the capacity to take ground, and it deprives one armed group of a position from which to project influence into the Amhara lowlands. Yet tactical gains of this kind have rarely translated into durable political settlements, and the resumption of organised multi-group opposition raises the possibility of a much broader confrontation.

Observers will be watching for confirmation of who holds Sekota now, whether government forces push further, and whether the seven-group alliance issues a joint statement clarifying its aims. Moves on electoral arrangements, the return of Tigrayan combatants to barracks, and the opening of humanitarian access corridors will offer early signals about whether the region is sliding towards wider war or towards renewed negotiation. For now, the report from the north remains a picture of a country whose political settlement is still being fought over town by town.