ADDIS ABABA: Tensions were rising between rival factions in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray on Thursday, as France warned against travel there.
Tigray was the scene of one of the most devastating wars of the century between 2020 and 2022, estimated to have claimed as many as 600,000 lives.
That war pitted local forces against the federal government and allied militias, as well as the army of neighboring Eritrea.
Despite a peace agreement in November 2022, the region has not found stability and disputes between rival factions have intensified in recent months.
The federal government placed veteran Tigray politician Getachew Reda as head of an interim regional administration but he has been challenged by his former ally, the head of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, Debretsion Gebremichael.
On Tuesday, forces loyal to Debrietson took control of Adigrat, Tigray’s second largest city.
“The town is under renewed tension, the population fears a return to the bad old days of the war,” a local resident said on condition of anonymity.
Getachew ordered the suspension of three generals of the Tigray Defense Forces, accusing the rival faction of trying to “take over the whole of Tigray” in an interview with Tigrai Mass Media Agency.
“Given the ongoing internal clashes in Tigray, particularly in Adigrat and in the regional capital, Mekele, all travel throughout the Tigray region is now formally discouraged,” the French foreign ministry warned on Wednesday.
It also called on French nationals in Tigray to “stock up on emergency supplies (food, water, medicine, and possibly fuel) and to exercise utmost caution.”
On Wednesday, Getachew’s administration asked the Ethiopian government to “provide necessary assistance,” without specifying what it needed.
Federal authorities in the capital Addis Ababa have not yet commented.
In February, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed lamented that Tigrayans “still live in fear and terror amid rumors of war.”
France also urged “the avoidance of all unnecessary travel” to the northern Afar region, which borders Eritrea, at a time when tensions are high between the two Horn of Africa neighbors.

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin, dressed in military fatigues, ordered top commanders to defeat Ukrainian forces in the western region of Kursk as soon as possible after the United States asked him to consider a 30-day ceasefire proposal.
Ukrainian forces smashed across the Russian border on August 6 and grabbed a slice of land inside Russia in a bid to distract Moscow’s forces from the front lines in eastern Ukraine and to gain a potential bargaining chip.
But a lightning Russian advance over the past few days has left Ukraine with a sliver of less than 200 square km (77 square miles) in Kursk, down from 1,300 square km (500 square miles) at the peak of the incursion last summer, according to the Russian military.
“Our task in the near future, in the shortest possible timeframe, is to decisively defeat the enemy entrenched in the Kursk region,” Putin told generals in remarks televised late on Wednesday.
“And of course, we need to think about creating a security zone along the state border.”
The remarks by Putin, dressed in a green camouflage uniform, came as US President Donald Trump said he hoped Moscow would agree to a ceasefire and said that if not then Washington could cause Russia financial pain.
Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s General Staff, told Putin that Russian forces had pushed Ukrainian forces out of over 86 percent of the territory they had once held in Kursk, the equivalent to 1,100 square km (425 square miles) of land.
Gerasimov said Ukraine’s plans to use Kursk as a bargaining chip in possible future negotiations with Russia had failed and its gambit that its Kursk operation would force Russia to divert troops from its advance in eastern Ukraine had also not worked.
He said Russian forces had retaken 24 settlements and 259 square km (100 square miles) of land from Ukrainian forces in the last five days along with over 400 prisoners.
Russia’s operation to eject Ukrainian forces from Kursk has entered its final stage, state news agency TASS reported on Thursday citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Ukraine’s top army commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Wednesday that Kyiv’s troops will keep operating in Kursk as long as needed and that fighting continued in and around the town of Sudzha.
The US on Tuesday agreed to resume weapons supplies and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after Kyiv said at talks in Saudi Arabia that it was ready to support a ceasefire proposal.
The Kremlin on Wednesday said it was carefully studying the results of that meeting and awaited details from the US.