ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Renewed fighting in northern Ethiopia on Thursday effectively shattered a peace pact that ended a devastating two-year war in 2022, with rebel forces mobilizing for an armed struggle they hope will lead to the removal of the federal prime minister.
The main combatants are Ethiopian federal troops and fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, an armed political group in Tigray, Ethiopia's northernmost regional state.
The TPLF and Ethiopian federal troops waged war between November 2020 and November 2022, when a peace deal was signed in Pretoria, South Africa.
Eritrean troops fought alongside Ethiopian forces against the TPLF in that conflict. The civilian death toll was estimated by Ghent University researchers to be 500,000, including from violence, famine and the collapse of health services.
After both sides signed the Pretoria peace deal, a caretaker administration seen as loyal to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was installed in Mekelle, the Tigray capital. But tensions remained, with the TPLF maneuvering for political control in Mekelle.
This time, the TPLF appears to have mobilized widely, bringing together former foes in its stated goal of removing Abiy from power in Addis Ababa, the federal capital.
On Sunday, the TPLF and six other opposition groups announced that they had formed an alliance to overthrow Abiy's governing Prosperity Party, which was reelected in June polls that were boycotted by major opposition groups.
Both sides had been accusing each other of bad faith, and for months some civilians in Tigray expected a return to armed hostilities. In May, the TPLF forced out regional leader Tadesse Werede, who reported to Abiy, and replaced him with a new council led by TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael, who led the Tigrayans in the previous conflict.
Ethiopian federal authorities accused the TPLF of seeking to build an alliance with neighboring Eritrea to destabilize Ethiopia. The TPLF accused Ethiopian authorities of conducting drone attacks in Tigray. Eritrea said that it was alarmed by Abiy’s repeated assertions of his wish for sovereign access to the Red Sea via Eritrea.
Both sides deny responsibility for launching this round of hostilities, and most of the fighting is believed to be in remote areas of often ragged, mountainous territory. On Wednesday, TPLF fighters seized the airport in Mekelle from federal police, and national carrier Ethiopian Airlines canceled flights there and elsewhere in the region.
The Ethiopian News Agency, the official news organization of the Ethiopian government, described the TPLF as a “Trojan horse,” saying that the group’s “repeated attempts to incite conflict” defy the government’s “patience, concessions and magnanimity.”
The coalition formed by the TPLF and six other opposition groups said that it would be known as the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival. In addition to the TPLF, the others include the Amhara Fano National Movement, the Oromo Liberation Army, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front, the Benishangul Peoples’ Liberation Movement and the Gumuz Peoples’ Democratic Movement.
That alliance, which unites some groups previously opposed to each other, may put pressure on Abiy, according to Kjetil Tronvoll, an academic analyst of Ethiopia at Oslo New University College.
“The situation now differs substantially from the 2020-2022 war on Tigray,” he said in an analysis posted on X. “This time around Fano is an ally and Eritrea a backer. Supply lines are also secured through Eritrea.”
The African Union and a key regional bloc known as IGAD called for de-escalation of hostilities. U.S. Ambassador Ervin J. Massinga said in a statement that he felt disappointed by the TPLF’s “poor decision to launch a large-scale offensive.”
His statement said that the TPLF’s “unwinnable fight does nothing for the people. Other armed groups would be wise to avoid this.” A TPLF official, Amanuel Assefa, said the statement was unfair.
Abiy has been praised by many for his ambitious infrastructure projects that seek to turn Addis Ababa into a world-class city. To his supporters, the prime minister is a renaissance man trying to reimagine the old greatness of Ethiopia.
Abiy rose from relative obscurity to power in 2018 as a reform-minded pragmatist. Ties with Eritrea, which broke away from Ethiopia in 1993 after decades of brutal guerrilla warfare, had been cold since the 1990s, and Abiy’s efforts to repair relations with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki helped him win the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.
A year later, Abiy confounded expectations by launching a military operation against the TPLF.
Some of Abiy’s critics now see him as a provocateur whose actions could lead to hostilities in the Horn of Africa. His push for sovereign access to the Eritrean seaport of Assab has reignited tensions with Eritrea, which shares a border with Tigray. Abiy also angered Somalia by trying to negotiate access to the sea via the territory of Somaliland.
Rodney Muhumuza reported from Kampala, Uganda.
FILE - Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali attends a session at the World Atomic Week forum at the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy (VDNKh) in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (Sergei Bulkin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) fighters attend an orientation session in western Oromia, Ethiopia, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo, File)
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — A Phoenix suburb ditched a plan to send recycled water from toilets and other sources directly to residents' taps, after political candidates made unproven claims that the water is contaminated “poop water.”
The affluent city of Scottsdale mainly uses purified water from the city's liquid waste to recharge aquifers that can be drawn when other sources are running low. But in June, as criticism mounted, the city council replaced funding for the recycling program and other water projects with a vague $100 million allocation for new water sources and supplies.
The recycling program has become a strange wedge in a three-way race for two seats on the council in the November election. One candidate supports adding purified wastewater to the drinking supply. Meanwhile, a former Republican state lawmaker and a conservative incumbent say they're skeptical and questioned the safety and cost of meeting new state regulations.
The city says the candidates’ claims of “toilet to tap” or untested “poop water” marginalize the science behind the treatment program. Less than 1% of the city’s liquid waste comes from toilets, water officials said.
The budget change killed a plan to add purified wastewater that exceeds federal drinking water standards directly to Scottsdale’s supply by 2027.
Some experts and residents said the budget change — along with a council majority that frowns upon wastewater reuse — could weaken resilience at a time when the West is mired in drought and cities are facing significant cuts from the Colorado River.
Scottsdale pioneered the wastewater recycling system in 1998. The city’s recycling facility is big enough to serve 60,000 households.
That expertise is vital for water officials elsewhere in Arizona who are looking to replicate the work in at least four other facilities.
“It’s so important to protect and reuse water in the Southwest,” said Bryan Cassens, an assistant senior director for Scottsdale Water, which runs the recycling program. “Here we already know it all. We’ve been doing it for 28 years.”
The city of 250,000 gets 70% of its water from the Colorado River, more than any other city with the same population or larger in Arizona and California.
Scottsdale Water employees said that reliance and decades of population growth pushed them to recycle to defend against drought. All wastewater is treated through intensive steps — like ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet photolysis, officials said.
Some was sold to breweries to make beer. Around 7,500 people tried the water after facility tours and other events, but no residents received it through their taps at home.
With the program expansion stalled, officials with Scottsdale Water said they'll be prepared to present options to the council in October.
Former state lawmaker Michelle Ugenti-Rita, who is running for the city council, has been the most vocal opponent of the advanced water purification program.
She and actor Rob Schneider held up a glass of clear water and a glass of brown liquid in a May campaign ad that accused her opponents of pushing Scottsdale residents to drink sewage water, which her opponents denied.
A month later, the council approved the $100 million budget change.
Incumbent Councilman Barry Graham said the program is costly and an “alarmist” overreaction to drought.
Water officials in Scottsdale, Phoenix and Tucson also said some new state requirements on mixing purified water into the drinking water supply — like tracking chemicals and contaminants that are not federally regulated — unnecessarily raise costs.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is making the new rules easier to follow but won’t be finished until early 2027, said Randall Matas, who leads the department’s Water Quality Division.
Despite the debates, Cassens said the facility is operating as normal.
Ugenti-Rita did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press. Graham said advanced water purification would be a last resort in a water crisis, not now.
“I can’t just assume that every visitor and resident is going to trust the experts and is even going to listen to the experts,” Graham said.
The criticism in Scottsdale comes as two key barometers of the Colorado River's health — Lake Mead and Lake Powell — hit record lows this summer.
A federal proposal for the Colorado River outlines combined water cuts for Arizona, California and Nevada that could serve more than 25 million people annually through 2036.
“It’s not really a good time to start being selective,” said Cynthia Campbell, a former water resource management adviser for Phoenix. “Are you really going to play political games with the one thing that makes it possible to live in the desert?”
Since last year, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has committed to investing more than $300 million in advanced water purification projects in the arid West.
In Arizona, just over half of voters in the 2022 midterm election said they were “very” or “somewhat” confident that the state would have enough water over the next 10 years, according to AP VoteCast, which surveyed more than 3,000 Arizona voters. The other half, 47%, said they were “not too” or “not at all” confident.
Communities shouldn't abandon long-term investments in public health and sustainability for short-term gain, said Ben Grumbles, the executive director of Environmental Council of the States, a nonpartisan group of state and local environmental agency leaders.
“It can be frustrating when there are politicians scoring a cheap, fast point,” Grumbles said. “I hope that over time, the facts will bear out.”
Associated Press journalist Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington, D.C., contributed.
Bryan Cassens, Assistant Senior Director at the Scottsdale Water Campus, walks through the site, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Water flows through part of the standard wastewater treatment A+ effluent tertiary filter system at the Scottsdale Water Campus on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
The 18th green at the TPC Scottsdale, a golf course that gets their water from the Scottsdale Water Campus, is seen Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Campaign signs for Scottsdale City Council candidates are posted Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026 in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Wufei Yu)
Michael Serpa, senior scientist at the Scottsdale Water Campus, works on water testing, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
