Internet Access Is Restricted in Tigray as Fighting Enters Its Third Day

Internet access has been restricted in Tigray following the outbreak of fighting in the region, BBC News reported on Friday. The broadcaster set the restriction against the two-year civil war that ended in 2022, during which the region was totally cut off from the outside world.

fact.et has not seen an official notice naming who ordered the restriction, what it covers, or how long it is expected to last.

Why a blackout is a commercial event, not only a political one

A communications restriction does a specific kind of damage to businesses that a road closure does not. Mobile money stops settling. Card terminals stop authorising. Payroll instructions do not leave the branch. Suppliers cannot confirm orders, and the firms carrying the receivables cannot tell whether a counterparty has stopped paying or has simply stopped being reachable.

During the earlier blackout, that ambiguity outlasted the fighting: balances, collateral positions and outstanding invoices in the region could not be reconciled for long after the guns stopped, because nobody had a record of what had happened in between.

What else is reported around it

Separately, Reuters reported — relayed by Tikvah Ethiopia — that residents of Meqelle have begun buying food and basic goods in quantity, fearing the fighting that began on Wednesday will widen. fact.et reported on 24 September that Ethiopian Airlines had suspended flights to Meqelle, Axum and Shire.

Taken together, the three restrictions — air, road corridors described as contested, and now connectivity — remove the ordinary means by which a firm with exposure in the north would find out what it still owns.

Open

No authority has said what is restricted or where the restriction applies, and no operator has published a service notice. It is not known whether banking and mobile-money channels are affected, which is the question any lender or distributor with northern exposure needs answered first. The TPLF has issued no statement on connectivity.

Sources: BBC News, 25 September 2026, Tikvah Ethiopia, 24 September 2026