In the wake of a week of violent clashes between Ethiopian national military forces and an opposition armed coalition dominated by Tigray region fighters, new tensions have surged through the country’s capital Addis Ababa following multiple overnight explosions reported by local residents and diplomatic insiders.
Multiple blasts were confirmed to have struck the capital, with one detonation hitting the western district surrounding the national military headquarters and a second impacting a southern neighborhood near the country’s secret service base, according to accounts collected from multiple on-the-ground sources. The explosions occurred just hours after Ethiopian authorities implemented a total ban on civilian and commercial drone flights across all airspace surrounding Addis Ababa, a move that already signaled growing security concerns in the capital.
Local residents described the force of the blasts as significant enough to trigger vehicle alarm systems kilometers from the blast sites. One resident living in the southern Gotera neighborhood, speaking to BBC Amharic, said the first explosion was recorded around 00:30 local time, equal to 21:30 Greenwich Mean Time. A second resident, based in the western suburb of Torhayloch just blocks from the military headquarters, shared that the blast interrupted a casual game night with friends, catching the entire neighborhood off guard.
A source affiliated with the opposition armed coalition told Reuters news agency that the group carried out the explosions in a targeted drone attack. As of the latest reporting, there is no official confirmation from Ethiopian government bodies on the cause of the blasts, the precise locations of the attacks, the scale of structural damage, or any potential casualties among civilians or security personnel. Multiple official bodies, including the office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s national defense ministry, federal police forces, and the Addis Ababa municipal police department, have not responded to repeated requests for comment from the BBC.