Pope Leo XIV calls for dialogue in Ethiopia amid renewed fighting in Tigray

Pope Leo XIV made an appeal for peace in Tigray and the neighbouring Ethiopian regions of Afar and Amhara on Wednesday, inviting all parties involved "to choose the path of dialogue."

Renewed fighting between Ethiopian federal troops and fighters affiliated to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) escalated last week, shattering a peace pact that ended a devastating two-year war in 2022.

The rebel forces mobilised for an armed struggle they hope will lead to the removal of the federal prime minister.

In his appeal to peace, the pope expressed his hope for the international community to provide "generous" and "timely" humanitarian aid to the region.

"Armed conflict never solves problems but only worsens them leaving in its wake a trail of death, destruction and resentment," he said.

Fighting is ongoing along several fronts, but government forces appear to be pushing north into Tigray, towards the regional capital of Mekelle.

Pro-government forces said they took control of the strategic town of Alamata in southern Tigray on Monday, while locals interviewed by AFP at a hospital said there had been heavy shelling on the town of Maychew further north.

A senior health worker in the Aydar Referral Hospital, Mekelle's biggest medical facility, said they had received 44 critically injured civilians, including 33 children, wounded by shelling on Maychew and Alamata between Saturday and Monday.

"Some are blinded, some have their legs and hands amputated from the bombing," the health worker said, adding that at least four people had died en route to the hospital from the towns.

The previous civil war between the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the TPLF, which dominates politics in Tigray, ended with the Pretoria Peace Agreement of 2022.

But it was never fully implemented, and since late 2025, the government launched multiple drone strikes in Tigray and massed troops at the border, while the TPLF kicked out a government-appointed administration.