This Timeline of the Tigray War (July 2021 to present) is part of a chronology of the military engagements of the Tigray War, a civil war that began in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia in early November 2020.

Timeline

Beginning through June 2020

July 2021 1 July A bridge across the Tekezé River was partly destroyed.

2 July Around 7000 captured Ethiopian soldiers passed through Mekelle, on the way to a prison north of the city.

3 July The UN reports that 400,000 suffer from in famine in Tigray, with 1.8 million more at risk.

6 July The Tigrayan government began mobilization to retake western Tigray from Amhara militias.

10 July Fiyelwiha battle. A large group of Amhara militia from Wereta and the surrounding Fogera district had been occupying the Dima district in Tigray. On 10 July, they were defeated by the Tigray Defence Forces (TDF); several Wereta militiamen, including the head of the Peace and Security Bureau of the Fogera woreda were killed on the battlefield in Fiyelwiha, a small town of the Dima district.The Reporter, 17 July 2021: EHRC calls for civilian protection

11 July

Following defeats of the ENDF and Amhara Special Forces in the Tigray War, the Fano (militia) took revenge on Tigrayan citizens in towns in Amhara region, killing people and looting shops, for instance in Wereta, where three Tigrayans were killed. In retaliation for the lost battle in Fiyelwiha the previous day, the Amhara Fano (militia) and mob murdered three civilians of Tigrayan origin in Wereta on 11 July 2021. Social media displayed imagery of the corpses been drag behind three wheel motorcycles, called “bajaj”.

12–13 July The TDF offensive started on 12 July 2021 resulted in Tigrayan forces capturing southern Tigray, including the towns of Alamata and Korem. The TDF subsequently crossed the Tekezé River and advanced westward, capturing the town of Mai Tsebri and prompting Amhara officials to call on its militias to arm themselves and mobilize.

17 July The TDF says it released about 1,000 captured Ethiopian soldiers at the Amhara-Tigray border.

19 July A 10 vehicle convoy of the World Food Programme was attacked in the city of Semera in Afar region.

20 July After controlling Kobo in the Amhara Region, the TDF did not harm the civilian population.RFI, 23 August: Éthiopie: à Dessie, des réfugiés amharas loin de leur famille

Regional forces from Oromia, Sidama, Somalia, and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples are mobilizing to support the ENDF in and around Tigray.

The TDF launched an invasion on Afar Region making gains and repelling an allied counterattack on the TDF lines reportedly capturing vehicles and equipment.

22 July The Afar regional government claims that 20 civilians were killed and 70,000 civilians displaced in clashes between the TDF and an alliance of ENDF and regional forces in Afar.

August 2021

10 August Abiy calls on civilians to join the army amid a continuing conflict.

13 August Joe Biden sends a special envoy to Ethiopia to de-escalate the conflict.

26 August EHRC reports that over 210 are killed in ethnic violence in Oromia.

27 August The UN chief warns of a “humanitarian catastrophe” as war spreads beyond Tigray.

September 2021 late August/early September According to an Amnesty International report released on 16 February 2022, in late August and early September 2021, TPLF fighters "deliberately killed dozens of people, gang-raped dozens of women and girls — some as young as 14 — and looted private and public property in two areas of northern Ethiopia's Amhara region."

31 August–4 September

Between 31 August and 4 September, TDF occupied the village of Chenna and adjacent areas in Dabat district. According to residents, TDF soldiers arrived demanding food, then killed those who resisted when fighters slaughtered their animals and looted their properties. The soldiers also shot at nearby Ethiopian troops from residential positions, drawing return fire on the residents. Government officials reported that the TDF massacred 120-200 civilians in all. Doctors at the hospital in nearby Dabat town put the death toll at 125 and counting. Human Rights Watch spoke to residents who witnessed 26 civilians summarily executed by the TDF in Chenna. The TDF denied the massacre. At least 30 women and girls were raped and sexually assaulted by TDF soldiers in and around Chenna during the occupation.

9 September

Residents told VOA News by telephone that the TDF killed 600 civilians in Kobo district. According to residents, on 9 September TDF fighters entered villages in Kobo searching for weapons but farmers repelled the soldiers from the villages. As TDF fighters withdrew from those villages to the town of Kobo, they killed men and teenage boys who were working their fields in retaliation along the way. Later that day, residents witnessed dozens of civilians summarily executed by TDF fighters in the town of Kobo. Spatiotemporal satellite imagery analysis corroborated witness testimony of new graves dug at two church compounds in the town to bury those summarily executed.

15 September On 15 September, the Ethiopian Walta TV interviewed groups of light-armed militiamen in the Zobel hills at the east of Kobo, threatening the vital north–south road across the central Ethiopian highlands.

23 September It was reported that at least 150 people had starved to death in Tigray territories in the month of August, and that at least 400,000 people had reached famine conditions.

27 September The BBC reported that aid trucks were unable to transport crucial supplies to Tigray, as hundreds of trucks that made the journey from other parts of Ethiopia between July and September did not return, due to lack of fuel and hassling of drivers. The United Nations aid chief, Martin Griffiths assumed that famine has taken hold in Tigray, where a nearly three-month long "de-facto blockade" restricted aid deliveries to 10% of what is needed in the war-torn region.

29 September The UN accuses Ethiopia of a de facto blockade on Tigray; and the government denies.

30 September Amid UN concerns about a blockade of aid deliveries to Tigray, the Ethiopian government expelled 7 top UN officials, reportedly because of "meddling" in its internal affairs, giving the officials 72 hours to leave the country.

October 2021 Early October

An intensive air campaign began against TDF positions in North Wollo by the Ethiopian Air Force.

4 October Abiy is sworn in for a new term amid the ongoing Tigray war.

11 October Ethiopian forces launch a new ground and air offensives to dislodge Tigray forces from Amhara and Afar.

18 October

The Ethiopian Air Force killed three civilians in Mekelle. That day, Tigray forces reported airstrikes in Mekelle, which were first denied, later admitted by the Ethiopian government.

20 October

The Ethiopian Air Force carried out a second series of airstrikes targeting inhabited areas of Mekelle city,The New Arab, 20 October: Ethiopia's Tigray region capital Mekelle hit by airstrike for second time in week and also on the small town of Agbe. A large enterprise, Mesfin Industrial Engineering, was also targeted, and one of its engineers got killed.

21 and 22 October

Airstrikes continued on 21 and 22 October; the latter was nearby Mekelle University main campus, and Mekelle Airport and coincided with the landing time of a UN humanitarian flight. As a consequence, the UN cancelled further humanitarian flights to Mekelle.AFP, 22 October 2021: [UN cancels Tigray flights after Ethiopia government airstrike https://news.yahoo.com/ethiopia-air-strikes-hit-tigray-102335411.html]

29 October

The TDF captured the town of Dessie with the Ethiopian government denying the claim.

30 October The TDF said they captured the town of Kombolcha and the OLA claimed to have captured the city of Kamisee from ENDF allied forces. The Ethiopian government denied the towns were captured.

November 2021

1 November OLA and TDF forces said they officially met up.

2 November As the counter-offensive came deeper into federally-controlled territory, the Ethiopian government declared a six-month state of emergency.

4 November During an interview with Radio France Internationale, French historian and Horn of Africa expert Gérard Prunier explained that the bulk of the Eritrean army in Tigray is defending the border with Sudan (to prevent Tigrayan rebels from being supplied by Egypt, which is hostile to Abiy Ahmed's government) and to protect Eritrea's border with Tigray, thus leaving the defense of Addis Ababa mostly to Amhara militias in the face of heavy losses sustained by Ethiopia's federal army.

10 November Amnesty International accuses Tigrayan rebel fighters of gang raping women in Ethiopia

11 November In view of rebels advancing on the capital city, fears are expressed for the safety of the Mugher plant (operated by Dangote Cement), located at 90 km northwest of Addis Ababa.Moneycentral, 10 November 2021: Dangote Cement's $500m Ethiopia Plant at Risk as War Escalates

12 November WHO’s Tedros says that Tigray is under a “systematic blockade”, with people starving to death.

17 November UN says that 1,000+ Tigrayans have been detained since the emergency declaration.

23 November Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said he campaigned to lead his army into battleground.

24 November Abiy joins the frontlines to lead the military in battle against the TPLF.

28 November The Ethiopian state television announced that the Ethiopian troops take control of Chifra, a district located in Afar Region.

December 2021 1 December The Ethiopian government said they recaptured Shewa Robit 220 km (135 miles) far from Addis Ababa. It was occupied by Tigray forces earlier. According to the Minister of Ethiopian Government Communications Legese Tulu, they also retook nearby towns like Debre Sina, Wegeltena, Mezezo, Mollale. They retook Lalibela, as well.

5 December The Ethiopian government claimed that they recaptured Dessie and Kombolcha.

12 December Reuters reported that forces loyal to the TPLF had recaptured the town of Lalibela less than two weeks after government forces and their allies had recaptured control of the town for themselves.

16 December Amnesty and HRW report mass killings and expulsions by the Amhara forces in western Tigray.

18 December Legesse Tulu, head of Government Communication Service, announced that government forces have taken control of several towns from TPLF, including: Weldiya, Kobo, Lalibela, Hara, Robit, Sanqa, Sirinka, Hamusit, Estaysh, Ahun Tegen, Dilb, and Kul Mesk.

19 December Ethiopian Government, announced that deputy prime minister Demeke Mekonnen visited Lalibela following its recapture.

20 December Getachew Reda, spokesman of the TPLF, announced that the TPLF forces were withdrawing from several areas of northern Ethiopia in order to "open the door to humanitarian aid."

23 December On 23 December, the Ethiopian government announced that its military forces would temporarily halt any excursions into Tigray.

24 December Ethiopian forces purportedly massacred an unknown number of people in the town of Abala. Soldiers went door to door killing ethnic Tigrayans but spared non-Tigrayan civilians.

January 2022 7 January Ethiopia announced pardons for high-profile political prisoners. Its government said it will release several leading TPLF members and opposition leaders from the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups.

Aid workers say an airstrike at an IDP camp in Dedebit, northwest Tigray, killed 56 people.

10 January According to aid workers and hospital officials, 17 people working at a flour mill, were killed in drone strikes in the town of Mai Tsebri. It was reported the strikes injured dozens of people and killed 16 donkeys.

11 January