Fighting in Ethiopia's Tigray region causes telecommunications blackout

Fighting broke out between Ethiopian federal forces and Tigrayan fighters in late September, cutting off phone and internet services across the Tigray region. The state-owned Ethio Telecom network went completely dark. The private company Safaricom kept some services running. The network monitoring group NetBlocks confirmed that northern Tigray had lost internet access. Four sources said the Tigray People's Liberation Front told both companies to cut their services. People in the region responded by rushing to buy supplies and withdraw cash from banks. A humanitarian worker in the city of Mekelle reported that all telecommunications had stopped working. Aid organisations now cannot easily contact people inside Tigray. The last major conflict there, from 2020 to 2022, caused famine-like conditions after a similar communications blackout.