--- title: "Pro-Government Fighters Claim Alamata, a Tigray Town That Keeps Changing Hands" description: "The claim, posted to Facebook by a force with ‘peace’ in its name, could open the road north to Mekelle" author: "Inez Holloway" published: 2026-09-29T08:19:23Z modified: 2026-09-29T11:37:01Z url: https://rews.cc/a/pro-government-fighters-claim-alamata-a-tigray-town-that-kee-d607e3 language: en tags: ["war", "ethiopia", "tigray", "refugees", "drones", "world"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Pro-Government Fighters Claim Alamata, a Tigray Town That Keeps Changing Hands *The claim, posted to Facebook by a force with ‘peace’ in its name, could open the road north to Mekelle* By Inez Holloway · September 29, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/pro-government-fighters-claim-alamata-a-tigray-town-that-kee-d607e3 ## In brief - The Tigray Peace Force, aligned with the federal government, claimed Monday it had captured Alamata with the national army - Alamata is a supply hub about 120km south of Mekelle and changed hands repeatedly in the 2020-22 war - Fighting since last Wednesday spans Tigray, Amhara and Afar, collapsing the four-year-old Pretoria Agreement - Tigrayan forces had seized three airports and a rebel alliance declared war after Washington lifted an arms embargo - Spokespeople for the military and the TPLF, which leads the armed resistance, did not immediately comment The announcement came, as announcements come in this war, on Facebook. The Tigray Peace Force — an armed group of Tigrayan fighters aligned with Ethiopia’s federal government — said it had captured the town of Alamata alongside the national army, after days of fighting with rebel forces across multiple fronts in the country’s north. The claim, made on Monday, carries weight because of where Alamata sits: about [120 kilometers south of Mekelle](https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-09-28/ethiopian-pro-government-forces-claim-capture-of-strategic-tigray-town), Tigray’s capital, on the road federal forces would take north. It is [an important supply hub for troops](https://www.933thedrive.com/2026/09/28/ethiopian-pro-government-forces-claim-capture-of-strategic-tigray-town/), and it changed hands several times during the 2020-2022 civil war. Its capture, if it holds, would be a major boon to a federal push toward Mekelle, about 120km to the north, [Reuters reported](https://www.sowetan.co.za/news/africa/2026-09-28-ethiopian-forces-claim-strategic-town-in-tigray-offensive/). The fighting did not begin at Alamata. Since last Wednesday it has spread across Tigray and the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar, shattering the four-year-old Pretoria Agreement — the deal that ended a war in which hundreds of thousands of people died. The sequence has its own logic. Days after Washington lifted its arms embargo, Tigrayan forces [seized three airports](https://rews.cc/a/ethiopia-s-second-civil-war-begins-where-the-first-one-ended-6ec260) and a pact of [seven rebel armies](https://rews.cc/a/ethiopia-s-uneasy-alliance-seven-rebel-armies-one-common-ene-d88ef6) declared war, with no agreed plan for after. Ethiopia’s military, for its part, has accused its neighbors of backing the opposition; the army chief, Field Marshal Berhanu Jula, [blamed Eritrea](https://rews.cc/a/ethiopia-s-army-chief-promises-wisdom-and-restraint-in-tigra-ebe4fc) for funding the armed groups. Whether Alamata has in fact fallen is another matter. Spokespeople for the Ethiopian military and for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front — which is leading the armed resistance to the federal government — did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported. North of the town the road runs 120 kilometers, to Mekelle. The force that claims to have taken it calls itself the Tigray Peace Force.