ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Residents of the largest city in northern Ethiopia said they were living in fear Friday, with many reportedly trying to flee to other provinces to escape renewed fighting between federal troops and rebels opposed to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Some told The Associated Press that internet service was disrupted across parts of northern Ethiopia, and roads connecting the northernmost region of Tigray with the neighboring region of Afar had been closed to civilian traffic.
“There is an atmosphere of fear,” said Selam Fantay, who sells garlic in the market in the Tigrayan capital of Mekelle. “People are deeply concerned that the suspension of transport services signals the outbreak of renewed conflict.”
The AP could not independently verify the reported closures.
Hailay Meles, a businessman in Mekelle, said he was worried that the disruption of transport links could increase the cost of essential goods. “As long as this conflict persists, it will continue to drive up the prices of basic commodities,” Meles said.
Valerie Browning, a co-founder of the Afar Pastoralist Development Association, a humanitarian group, said many people were fleeing Tigray into Afar. She said explosions were heard overnight.
She said that “too many people are being displaced. Our vehicles, including our ambulances are being taken from us by the government for use (in) the war.”
The renewed fighting has shattered a 2022 peace agreement that ended a devastating two-year war in Tigray, the epicenter of renewed hostilities between federal troops and fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
The TPLF is an armed political group based in Tigray, and for years it was the dominant party in a coalition that ruled Ethiopia between 1991 and 2018. It has been outlawed by Abiy's government.
After the November 2022 peace agreement between the TPLF and federal authorities, a caretaker administration reporting to Abiy took charge in Mekelle. But tensions remained, and in May caretaker leader Tadesse Werede was removed and replaced with a TPLF leader who led Tigrayans in the 2020-2022 war.
Both sides accuse each other of violating the peace agreement. In recent months, 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.
Neighboring Eritrea, whose soldiers fought alongside Ethiopian troops in the previous Tigray conflict, said it was alarmed by Abiy’s repeated assertions of his wish for sovereign access to the Red Sea via Eritrea.
Ethiopia’s military said Thursday that dozens of TPLF fighters had been killed in ongoing operations. It said other fighters were detained and that federal forces have seized weapons.
Air travel into the region was suspended this week after fighters loyal to the TPLF seized Mekelle’s airport from federal police. Ethiopian Airlines canceled flights to and from the region.
Fighting erupted days after seven opposition groups said they were banding together in a coalition in a bid to remove the recently reelected Prosperity Party government of Abiy.
Magnus Taylor, an analyst with International Crisis Group, said the new alliance combines political opposition to Abiy with military coordination among armed groups operating in different parts of Ethiopia.
The alliance “is a combination of a political alliance based around mutual antipathy to Abiy Ahmed’s government and also a kind of opportunistic military alliance intended to threaten the Ethiopian military in the areas where the groups operate,” Taylor said.
In addition to the TPLF, the coalition’s other prominent members include the Amhara Fano National Movement and the Oromo Liberation Army.
Taylor pointed out that coordinated campaigns could open several fronts against the federal government.
“I think there is a real risk that the fighting could spread around the country,” he said, adding that the opposition alliance meant different armed groups can coordinate to “develop campaigns against the federal government in parallel to each other.”
People walk in Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia's Tigray region, as fighting escalates with the central government, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (AP Photo)
People walk in Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia's Tigray region, as fighting escalates with the central government, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (AP Photo)
PARIS (AP) — Pope Leo XIV warned Friday that a “paradise of machines” risked undermining humanity as he opened a trip to France by posing fundamental questions about what it means to be human in the age of artificial intelligence, nuclear arms race and other threats to life itself.
Leo raised existential concerns about scientific progress, life and human rights during his opening speech to President Emmanuel Macron and diplomats at the Élysée Palace.
Given the wars plaguing Europe and the Middle East, he reaffirmed the Vatican’s opposition to nuclear weapons and said the nuclear deterrence doctrine was “mistaken” since it was just fueling a new arms race.
“Peace is not a balance of power; rather, it is built day by day through dialogue and justice,” he said.
Leo, whose paternal ancestors were French, arrived in Paris at the start of four intense days in France, where the Catholic Church has lost ground on influencing ethical issues given the strict approach to secularism that is enshrined in the French Constitution.
Church bells tolled across France when Leo’s charter flight landed at Paris’ Orly airport, and upward of a million people are expected to turn out to see him. The welcome has underscored the surprising level of interest in Leo’s visit, the first official state visit by a pope in 18 years.
Macron said Leo’s visit brings “a source of hope” to many French people.
“France stands on the side of peace, effective multilateralism, respect for international law and the United Nations Charter ... because every life has equal value, and all peoples must be defended,” he said.
Later Friday, Leo was to visit UNESCO headquarters, celebrate vespers at the newly reopened Notre-Dame cathedral and then preside over a massive youth vigil at the Paris stadium Friday night.
For Macron, who is barred from seeking a third term in May elections, hosting the American pope is something of a capstone, after Pope Francis refused repeatedly to make a proper state visit to France during his 12-year pontificate.
“For a president of the republic as Macron, who is at the end of his mandate, it can be important to be aside the pope and to capture a part of his popularity. It’s not new,” said Charles Mercier, director of history and sociology of Catholicism studies at Paris EPHE university.
With seven months left in his term, Macron’s approval ratings are near record lows, driven by anger over the rising cost of living and criticism of France’s growing debt and deficit and deteriorating public services.
Smiling broadly as Leo spoke French, Macron thanked the pope for visiting, saying: “You are here with us for an extended visit, giving us your time, and that is moving.”
The Rev. Aristide Ahidote, from Ivory Coast, was among those who planned to attend the pope's vespers service in Notre-Dame. “God has given us a pope with vigor and strength,” he said.
While acknowledging the French church has declined in popularity, “it still has small remnants and these small remnants have been edifying for me.”
Leo has been keen to emphasize Europe’s Christian roots and try to push the church’s message about the value and dignity of human life in a country where the right to abortion was enshrined in the constitution in 2024, and where lawmakers recently gave final approval to a bill allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication.
The French Catholic hierarchy strongly opposed the measures, in keeping with Catholic teaching that human life must be protected and defended from conception until natural death.
In his speech to Macron and other government and diplomatic authorities, Leo called for France especially to remember that the right to life is the “indispensable foundation of every other human right.”
He recalled France’s “deep Christian roots” and the recognition of human rights in warning about scientific progress and artificial intelligence.
“If we are to avoid losing our humanity amid a ‘paradise of machines’ invading and conditioning our daily lives, there is an urgent need for education in ethical discernment and the capacity to acknowledge the moral good,” he said.
From the very start of his pontificate, Leo has identified artificial intelligence as one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. He dedicated his first encyclical to the topic, “Magnificent Humanity,” calling for robust regulation and for AI developers to work for the common good rather than profit.
Leo also appealed to AI developers and political leaders responsible for regulating them to slow down, an appeal that several top AI companies seem to have taken to heart in recently.
Speaking to reporters en route to Paris, Leo said he was pleased that his message was being heard and said he hoped the dialogue that the Vatican had initiated with tech companies would continue.
“And I think from their perspective, many of them, they’re very much open to looking for ways of making sure that AI does not displace or ultimately destroy humanity, but rather than be a tool for human beings,” he said. “Good things are beginning at least.”
On the flight, Leo was also asked by a CNN reporter about the Trump administration’s attempt to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico news organizations from the White House. Leo said he welcomed media coverage and affirmed the need for it.
“I am very happy that here, you are all welcome,” he said. Good media coverage is important, he said, and equally important “that we have it all the way around, for everyone.”
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Associated Press writer John Leicester contributed to this report.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV listens to French President Emmanuel Macron, during a joint statement at the Elysee Palace, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez, Pool)
Pope Leo XIV speaks during a joint statement with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez, Pool)
French President Emmanuel Macron and Pope Leo XIV at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (Benoit Tessier/Pool Photo via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Pope Leo XIV to the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (Benoit Tessier/Pool Photo via AP)
Pope Leo XIV is welcomed to the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (Benoit Tessier/Pool Photo via AP)
Pope Leo XIV, right, is welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron, center, and his wife Brigitte as he arrives at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (Remo Casilli/Pool Photo via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Pope Leo XIV to the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (Benoit Tessier/Pool Photo via AP)
Pope Leo XIV, center, is welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron, left, and his wife Brigitte as he arrives at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Leo XIV boards a flight to Paris at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Fiumicino for a four-day pastoral visit to France, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
A banner announces the upcoming visit of Pope Leo XIV in Metz eastern France, Tuesday, Sept 15, 2026 as part of his official visit to France from Sept. 26 to 28. (AP Photo/Pascal Bastien)
FILE - French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte arrive in the St. Damasus Courtyard at the Vatican to meet with Pope Leo XIV, Friday, April 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
The Champs Elysees prepares for the mass that Pope Leo XIV will celebrate during his visit in Paris, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)
A pigeon flies past Pope Leo XIV as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
