Ethiopia intel chief visits flashpoint Tigray region

Ethiopia's intelligence chief and a federal minister travelled to the regional capital of the breakaway Tigray region on Sunday, as flights there resumed after a two-week suspension due to fighting.

Hostilities erupted in late September between the federal army and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), raising fears of a fresh war between Ethiopia and its neighbour Eritrea.

Ethiopia accuses Eritrea of backing TPLF forces, which seized control of Tigray's main airport in Mekelle on September 23 but abandoned the city last week.

On board the first Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to land there on Sunday after the end of the suspension were Ethiopia's head of intelligence Redwan Hussein, a key adviser to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

He was accompanied by Ethiopia's minister for East African affairs Getachew Reda, a former Tigrayan rebel leader.

Getachew on Sunday also travelled to speak to supporters in Adigrat, a town near the Eritrean border, where Eritrean forces had recently entered before it was retaken by Ethiopian troops.

The resumption of flights to Mekelle was a "huge relief", said one passenger, Filmon Haile, 27.

He told AFP he had endured a "very anxious situation" in recent weeks, with reports of drone strikes on Mekelle coupled with a telecommunications blackout.

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 and they fought a deadly border war from 1998 to 2000.

TPLF fighters battled Ethiopian government forces, then backed by Eritrea, in a devastating 2020-2022 war.