UN says families returned to Tahtay Adiyabo have fled again

The UN said in a displacement update reported by Eastleigh Voice that thousands of displaced people are currently in Debre Birhan in the Amhara region and Shire town in northwestern Tigray. Debre Birhan already hosts internally displaced people who fled West Shewa, East Wollega and West Wollega zones in Oromia, and those communities have faced prolonged shortages of food, shelter and other aid.

The update did not provide a breakdown of the newly displaced population by location or say when the latest movements began. The UN said insecurity and movement restrictions are disrupting aid delivery. In Amhara, continued insecurity is restricting movement along key roads connecting Gonder with Debark and Metema.

The UN said it and humanitarian partners are preparing to scale up assistance, prioritising people with the most urgent humanitarian needs.

Returns under strain

In October 2025, Addis Standard reported that 12,155 internally displaced households, comprising 62,707 people, had returned to their areas of origin across six woredas in Tigray: Irob, Gulomekada, Zala Anbassa, Egela, Central Adiyabo and Tahtay Adiyabo. The UN now says families who had recently returned in Tahtay Adiyabo have been forced to flee again.

Fighting and access

The displacement update follows renewed fighting in Tigray, Amhara and Afar, nearly four years after the November 2022 Pretoria Agreement ended the two-year war between federal forces and the TPLF. A ground offensive by Tigrayan forces began on 23 September, after weeks of federal air and drone attacks in August and September, Scroll reported. The fighting since 23 September is the worst escalation since the 2020-2022 civil war, which killed hundreds of thousands of people, Reuters reported.

What the national count shows

UNHCR's Ethiopia data sheet, printed on 15 October 2026, gives a position date of 31 August 2026 and puts the internally displaced total at 1,919,993. The sheet attributes that figure to Site Assessment Round 37 of the Displacement Tracking Matrix, which the matrix dates to July and August 2024 and lists no later round.

Tigray, including areas the sheet lists as contested, accounts for 761,284 of the total. Oromia accounts for 749,534, Amhara for 166,353 and Afar for 123,767. Conflict is given as the reason for 82% of internal displacement. UNHCR also lists 2,813,489 IDP returnees, including 1,123,137 in Tigray and 1,026,215 in Amhara.

The sheet's chart shows 3.3 million displaced people in 2024 and 1.9 million from February 2025. It does not explain the fall, so the two figures should not be read as 1.4 million people going home. The International Organization for Migration, which runs the survey, would have to publish a new national round to confirm how many of the 1,919,993 are still displaced. UNHCR's sheet gives no date for one and does not state whether new fighting since August has added to the total.