Three residents of Adigrat told Reuters they saw the Ethiopian army and an allied militia in the city on the morning of Saturday 10 October 2026. Adigrat is in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the Eritrean border. One resident said soldiers were on patrol with military vehicles. Reuters could not confirm whether the army was in full control. Ethiopia's military did not respond to a request for comment, and city officials could not be reached.
This article answers one question: who holds Adigrat, and how much of that is established? The accounts follow drone strikes recorded on 7 and 8 October by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a conflict monitor. Eritrea's Information Minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, has called reports of an Eritrean incursion part of an Ethiopian plan to justify a war of aggression.
What residents and monitors describe
One Adigrat resident told the BBC of 20 to 30 large trucks carrying soldiers through the town. A Tigray Peace Force commander placed the Eritrean entry into Adigrat on 6 October, while ACLED dates the border crossing at Zelambesa to 7 October. A BBC source in Mekelle said relatives described up to 60 trucks. Witnesses reported troops in off-white camouflage identifiable as Eritrean, with heavy weapons including anti-aircraft guns. A commander of the Tigray Peace Force confirmed the reports, citing his personnel on the ground. The force is a government-allied group of former Tigray Defense Forces members, and the commander is a party to the conflict.
ACLED recorded "multiple drone strikes" at Adigrat and at Guada, on the road toward Idaga Hamus, on 7 and 8 October, as Crisis.Zone reported. ACLED believes the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) carried out the strikes. Neither Addis Ababa nor Asmara has issued a formal military statement on them. An Adigrat resident told Agence France-Presse (AFP): "There were many, many drone strikes yesterday. Some Eritrean lorries have been destroyed. They are no longer in the streets."
On 9 October, a resident told Reuters that explosions continued several kilometres outside town. Eritrean forces then withdrew from positions near Adigrat, according to ACLED. Federal forces and allied fighters were reported on 4 October to hold Mekelle, 115 kilometres to the south, according to three sources who spoke to Reuters.
Observers are reading: a side-by-side reading of the Ethiopian and Eritrean accounts against monitor and witness data, and the Pretoria exclusion behind them.
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What remains unverified
The answer to the question is therefore narrow. Residents told Reuters on 10 October that Ethiopian soldiers and an allied militia were in Adigrat. No source has confirmed full control, and neither the army nor city officials have commented.
Casualty figures are unknown, and no source has confirmed whether Eritrean forces withdrew across the border or redeployed inside Ethiopia. Eritrea's objective has not been stated. It could be a buffer zone, support for the TPLF-led coalition or independent aims. Communications access to Tigray is limited, so most accounts rest on monitor data and witnesses rather than official military confirmation. For now, the verified facts sit inside a larger uncertainty.
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