After an eight-month military campaign that also involved troops from neighbouring eritrea, deployed alongside the federal ethiopian army, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) militia succeeded in retaking much of Tigray and the town of Mekelle at the end of June 2021, where the ethiopian army was put to flight and thousands of soldiers were taken prisoner.

It is a partial victory: Mekelle remains under siege, with no electricity or communications, with major roads closed and humanitarian convoys unable to bring much-needed aid to the thousands of Tigrayans at risk of starvation.