France Foreign Ministry has issued a warning against travel to Ethiopia’s Tigray region, urging French nationals to leave as soon as possible, amid escalating tensions and clashes between factions of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
France warning, posted on its website, states, “In view of the ongoing internal clashes in Tigray, particularly in Adigrat and Mekele, travel throughout the Tigray region is now formally inadvisable.” It added, “French nationals passing through are asked to leave Tigray as soon as possible.”
The warning follows reports that a faction of the TPLF, led by Debretsion Gebremichael, seized control of the Adigrat town administration on Tuesday, ousting officials appointed by the rival faction led by Getachew Reda, the region’s interim president. On Wednesday night, the same faction seized control of Adi-Gudem, a town near the regional capital, Mekele.
The interim government of the Tigray region has appealed to the Ethiopian federal government for intervention to address the escalating violence, raising fears of a potential return to civil war. Several people were wounded in the fighting as armed forces attempted to occupy a government building in Adi-Gudem, reports said.
The conflict between federal forces and the TPLF between November 2020 and November 2022, claimed an estimated 600,000 lives, according to the African Union. A peace agreement, signed in Pretoria, South Africa, established an interim administration in Tigray pending elections. However, implementation delays have deepened divisions within the TPLF.
