For five months, a fragile peace agreement has allowed desperately needed humanitarian relief to trickle into Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region. But the year-long war that tore apart the northern part of the country in 2021 appears to have returned, once again putting the lives of millions of people at risk.
Reports of fighting emerged again near the end of August in the town of Kobo, in southern Tigray. The independence-minded rebels of the Tigray province and the Ethiopian government forces blamed each other for firing the first shots. Regional analysts had warned that the tension was building quickly again in the region, in spite of optimism just weeks earlier that talks to establish a lasting peace agreement were set to get under way.
There were even rumors circulating that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had sent senior officials to meet in secret with leaders of the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in the northern region.
Since then, the TPLF's forces have again been advancing southward, with reports of fierce clashes and at least two Ethiopian Air Force strikes against the Tigray region's capital, Mekele, in the past week. Residents claim one of those strikes hit a nursery school, killing at least four people, including three children.
Prime Minister Abiy has maintained tight control over the country's media, and journalists are largely unable to visit Tigray. Many international journalists have been barred from entering Ethiopia, or thrown out if they were already there.
In the void, much of the information that makes it out of the region is propaganda. Videos produced by the TPLF have been emerging online over the last week, showing large numbers of captured government tanks and soldiers.
TPLF officials have accused the government of launching an offensive from the north, from neighboring Eritrea, where the government is aligned with Abiy's. There have been unconfirmed reports of Eritrean forces massing at the border.
Other reports, meanwhile, suggest TPLF forces have been operating along the border with neighboring Sudan, where they're engaged in fighting over disputed territory in western Tigray. A security expert told CBS News that there's growing concern fighting on this new front could potentially draw Sudan into what is already a complicated regional conflict.
A United Nations report last year found that both sides had "committed atrocities," possibly amounting to crimes against humanity.
The aim of the humanitarian truce agreed to by the TPLF and the Ethiopian government on March 24 was to get much needed humanitarian supplies into Tigray, which had been cut off at that point by a government blockade for more than a year. It was hoped that the ceasefire would lay the groundwork for a more permanent peace deal. A recent United Nations report said almost everyone in Tigray — some 5 million people or 90% of the region's population — needed food aid.Truce in Ethiopia's war with Tigray rebels brought little relief.