The provisional administration of Tigray has sent a letter to the President of the African Union Commission, calling for what it described as "immediate action to avert an imminent war," according to reports documenting the appeal.
The letter reflects escalating tensions between the TPLF-aligned Tigray administration and Ethiopia's federal government over how to implement the 2022 Pretoria Peace Agreement, which formally ended the 2020-2022 conflict in the region.
On June 3, 2026, the Tigray People's Liberation Front released a memorandum accusing the Ethiopian federal government of undermining the Pretoria Peace Agreement, formally warning of mounting risks of renewed conflict. The memorandum alleged that military mobilization along the region's borders had intensified significantly in recent months.
The core of the current crisis centers on regional governance and authority. In April 2026, the TPLF reinstated a pre-war regional government structure, installing the council that had been elected in 2020 — directly challenging the Tigray Interim Administration, the post-war governance arrangement established under the Pretoria Agreement. Since February 2026, both the federal government and TPLF-aligned forces have maintained a military standoff along Tigray's regional border.
Despite these repeated and increasingly urgent appeals from Tigray's administration, the African Union has remained notably silent in response, according to available reporting. International actors including the AU and the United Nations have issued general calls for renewed dialogue, though specific AU action beyond these statements has not been documented.
The deteriorating security situation has begun to impose direct costs on Tigray's population. According to reporting, growing numbers of young people are fleeing the region amid fears of forced military recruitment and anxiety about a possible return to war.
The appeals from Tigray's provisional administration expose the underlying fragility of the post-war settlement in northern Ethiopia. While the Pretoria Peace Agreement succeeded in halting active hostilities, it appears to have left fundamental political questions about regional governance unresolved — questions that now sit at the center of the standoff between federal and TPLF-aligned forces.
