Internet cut off in Ethiopia's Tigray as fresh fighting erupts between military and rebels

Fighting has broken out between Ethiopia's military and a newly formed rebel alliance in the Tigray region, prompting authorities to restrict internet access and raising fears of a prolonged communications blackout.

The renewed violence has drawn immediate comparisons to the devastating 2020-2022 civil war, during which Tigray was completely cut off from the outside world. That conflict claimed an estimated 600,000 lives and left the region isolated for much of its duration.

Concerns are now mounting that a fresh blackout and blockade could once again sever Tigray's contact with the outside world, leaving civilians without access to information or means of communication as hostilities intensify. The return of fighting has alarmed observers who fear a repeat of the humanitarian catastrophe that accompanied the earlier war.