To:
*The United Nations
*The African Union
*The European Union and its Member States
*The Government of the United States of America, through its Embassy in Ethiopia
*The Embassies and Diplomatic Missions of Other Concerned States in Ethiopia,
*International and Regional Organizations, and the wider International Community
Subject: TIGRAY UNDER ATTACK: Immediate International Action Needed to Stop the War, Protect Civilians, and Prevent Another Catastrophe and a Wider Regional War
Excellencies,
We, Tsilal – Civil Society of Western Tigray, write to express our profound concern over the rapidly deteriorating situation in Tigray and to urgently appeal for your immediate intervention before the current crisis develops into another catastrophic humanitarian disaster.
The people of Tigray have already endured the devastating consequences of the 2020–2022 war. They have not yet recovered from the enormous loss of life, destruction of homes and livelihoods, mass displacement, economic devastation and disruption of essential services caused by that war. Today, Tigray remains extremely vulnerable. Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people continue to live away from their homes, many in camps and temporary settlements, with little or no independent means of livelihood and heavily dependent on humanitarian assistance. At the same time, drought and severe economic hardship have further weakened the ability of ordinary people to survive. It is against this extremely fragile background that Tigray is once again being drawn into war.
Following the signing of the Pretoria Agreement, the people of Tigray placed their hopes in peace, recovery and the restoration of normal life. However, many of the fundamental commitments and expectations arising from the agreement have remained unfulfilled. Large numbers of displaced people and refugees have not been able to return safely and with dignity to their homes, while important political and territorial questions remain unresolved and the conditions necessary for sustainable recovery have not been established.
Rather than allowing the peace process to consolidate, the Federal Government of Ethiopia has, in our observation, taken a series of measures that have progressively deepened the hardship and insecurity of the people of Tigray. Government funding to Tigray has been severely constrained, government employees have gone for months without salaries, and many public institutions and development activities have remained unable to function normally. The movement of people and goods has been severely restricted by shortages of fuel and transportation, while telecommunications and internet services have repeatedly been unavailable or severely disrupted. Humanitarian assistance has also remained inadequate in relation to the enormous needs of the population. These conditions have left an already devastated society increasingly isolated and economically strangled.
At the same time, since December 2025, Tigray has experienced continuing military pressure and aerial activity. Repeated drone and air operations have caused civilian deaths and injuries and damage to property. The continued movement and surveillance of drones over populated areas have created an atmosphere of constant fear, anxiety and psychological distress among civilians. For displaced people living in camps, many of whom have already survived war and forced displacement, the persistent presence of military aircraft and drones overhead has made even the places where they sought refuge feel increasingly unsafe.
These warnings have now become a tragic reality. After months of military provocation and escalating pressure, the Federal Government of Ethiopia has launched a full-scale military operation inside Tigray, including aerial bombardment and ground operations. The fighting has continued even after federal forces and their allies entered and took control of Mekelle, the capital of Tigray. Federal forces and allied forces are now operating across Tigray, with reports of civilians being killed, property being looted and civilian and government institutions being damaged or stripped of their belongings. Heavy fighting continues in parts of Tigray, with civilians once again being killed, displaced and placed at grave risk of starvation.
This military pressure has occurred alongside the continued failure to resolve the fundamental issues left by the previous war and the continuing hardship faced by a population already struggling to survive. The people of Tigray have nevertheless continued to express their desire for peace. Their overriding needs are recovery, reconstruction, the return of displaced families, restoration of livelihoods and the opportunity to rebuild their lives. Yet repeated military provocations, growing deployments around Tigray and continued aerial activity have steadily narrowed the space for peaceful resolution.
The situation has now escalated far beyond the warnings contained in our original appeal. Ethiopian National Defence Force aerial and drone operations are reportedly targeting areas where internally displaced people are sheltering across Tigray. Innocent IDPs have been killed in these attacks. On Saturday, 3 October 2026, a reported drone strike in north-western Tigray killed nine people, including a mother and her five children—six members of the same family—and injured 14 others. At the same time, humanitarian access is being further strangled: fuel needed to transport assistance to displaced people is being denied, while vehicles carrying food and humanitarian assistance have reportedly come under attack. These developments are placing hundreds of thousands of already vulnerable civilians in an immediate fight for survival.
We are now witnessing the most dangerous stage of this deterioration, with open military confrontation once again taking place in Tigray. In our view, this development cannot be separated from the events that preceded it. The deterioration of the post-Pretoria environment, the failure to fulfil key commitments, the continued displacement of Tigrayans, severe economic and humanitarian restrictions, disruption of essential services, repeated aerial attacks and surveillance, and continuing military pressure have together created an increasingly dangerous environment in which the present crisis has emerged.
The manner in which the current operation is being conducted also raises grave concerns that the country is repeating the disastrous pattern of the 2020 war, when the federal government presented its military campaign in Tigray as a “law enforcement” operation. We are deeply concerned that the current aggression is following the same destructive trajectory: the use of overwhelming military force against Tigray and its population, with the apparent consequence of further dismantling Tigray’s institutions, destroying civilian life and infrastructure, and inflicting collective suffering on Tigrayans. The international community must not allow the language or justification of “law enforcement” to obscure the human consequences of another large-scale military campaign against a population that has already suffered catastrophically.
The situation of internally displaced people is particularly alarming. More than a million displaced people and other vulnerable civilians cannot reasonably be expected to survive another war without immediate and sustained humanitarian assistance. Many have no homes to return to, no land they can safely cultivate, no employment and no alternative source of income. For them, humanitarian assistance is not a matter of convenience—it is a matter of survival. Any interruption of food supplies, medicine, water, shelter, transportation or other essential assistance could therefore have devastating consequences.
The continued aerial attacks on IDP communities, combined with restrictions on fuel and attacks on or threats to vehicles transporting humanitarian food, create an immediate risk of mass civilian suffering and hunger. We therefore urge the international community to treat the protection of IDPs and the uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian assistance as an emergency requiring immediate international action, not as a secondary consequence of the military conflict.
We respectfully call upon the Government of Ethiopia to immediately halt military operations and aerial attacks that endanger civilians in Tigray, restore the conditions necessary for humanitarian operations, and return to a new, genuine and meaningful political dialogue. We further call for the safe and dignified return of displaced people and refugees to their homes and for all outstanding political and territorial questions to be addressed through peaceful dialogue rather than military force.
We now reiterate this demand with the utmost urgency: the Federal Government of Ethiopia must immediately stop its military operations, aerial bombardment and drone attacks in Tigray; all forces and allied forces must cease attacks against civilians and civilian property; and humanitarian organizations must be granted safe, unhindered and sustained access to all affected populations, particularly internally displaced people.
We urgently appeal to the international community to use all available diplomatic and political means to press for an immediate cessation of hostilities and military escalation, the establishment of safe and unhindered humanitarian corridors into Tigray, the immediate delivery of food, medicine and other life-saving assistance, and the protection of internally displaced people and all civilians. We further urge the international community to closely monitor the situation, insist upon the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, and support a genuine political process capable of resolving the outstanding issues that continue to threaten the fragile peace in Tigray. At this critical moment, expressions of concern alone are not sufficient; what is urgently required is timely, sustained and meaningful action to prevent further loss of life and humanitarian suffering.
We further issue a strong warning that the conflict is no longer only an internal Ethiopian crisis. The military escalation in and around Tigray, the involvement of armed actors and allies, and the rapidly deteriorating relations between Ethiopia and neighbouring States have created a serious risk that the war will develop into a broader regional conflict in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea region. The international community must therefore give this crisis special and urgent consideration at the highest diplomatic level. Preventing the war from expanding beyond Ethiopia’s borders requires immediate preventive diplomacy, coordinated international pressure, civilian protection and a credible political process. Waiting until the conflict becomes fully regional will make prevention far more difficult and the humanitarian consequences far more devastating.
We also appeal, with respect and in the spirit of our shared humanity, to the people of Ethiopia. We ask Ethiopians from all communities and walks of life not to encourage, celebrate or remain indifferent to another war against the people of Tigray, but instead to raise their voices for peace, restraint and the protection of civilians. Do not repeat the historic mistake of the 2020 war against Tigray. The people of Tigray have suffered immensely and continue to suffer in full view of the world; they should not again be subjected to the same destruction, displacement and loss of life. This is the moment for the people of Ethiopia to reflect honestly on the past and recognize the terrible consequences of the 2020 war, when government-aligned narratives and media were widely used to mobilize public support for the war and to portray the people of Tigray as an enemy. Let this be the last time such a tragedy is repeated. Do not allow yourselves to be misled again, do not encourage or justify another war against Tigray, and do not remain silent while civilians are placed in danger. Let the Ethiopian people demonstrate that they have learned from the suffering of the past by refusing to support renewed violence and by standing with the people of Tigray in this critical hour. Stand for human life, stand for peace, and stand against another cycle of destruction before it is too late. Governments and political leaders may come and go, but the people remain and must live with the consequences of their country’s actions. We therefore call upon the Ethiopian people to raise their voices and demand that their government stop the attacks, prevent another catastrophe, and resolve the country’s differences through peaceful means.
Today, the international community still has an opportunity to prevent the present crisis from becoming a repetition of the 2020 catastrophe and from expanding into a wider regional war. We therefore appeal for immediate action to save civilian lives, protect displaced people, open humanitarian access, stop the bombardment and military escalation, and bring all parties back to a genuine political process. The cost of further delay will be measured not only in the destruction of Tigray, but in the lives of civilians across Ethiopia and potentially the wider region.
With highest consideration
