Fighting broke out near Sheraro in western Tigray on August 1, in what analysts call the most serious breach yet of Ethiopia’s 2022 Pretoria peace deal. Tigray’s regional government said federal forces launched a dawn assault from the direction of the town, according to a statement from Mekelle reported by Al Jazeera.
Ethiopian minister Abraham Belay confirmed the clashes but blamed forces loyal to Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) chairman Debretsion Gebremichael, calling for dialogue. Tigrayan authorities countered that Addis Ababa had waged a sustained blockade and, they allege, a drone campaign against the region, framing the clash as an escalation into full-scale war.
The eruption caps a slow collapse of Pretoria’s core, unresolved provisions: disarmament of Tigrayan forces and restoration of the TPLF’s legal status. Washington moved in June to impose visa restrictions on TPLF figures it called “hardliners,” warning that rising tensions “threatened to reignite the conflict,” according to a U.S. State Department statement. By mid-July, the TPLF was reportedly treating the agreement as defunct, even as U.S. Ambassador Ervin Massinga traveled to Mekelle in a last attempt to preserve it.
Ethiopia specialist Kjetil Tronvoll called it the gravest test the deal has faced since it was signed. Analyst Faisal Roble said the fighting signals that U.S. mediation has failed: “Without a powerful international intervention, we could be heading to a much larger war.”
