Inconclusive Ethiopia 32 killed, 9 wounded (claimed by ENDF sergeant) "Hundreds" killed (claimed by Abiy Ahmed) On 3–4 November 2020,[a] forces loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) launched attacks on the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) Northern Command headquarters in Mekelle[5] and bases in Adigrat,[3] Agula,[3] Dansha,[4] and Sero[1] in the Tigray Region, marking the beginning of the Tigray War.

Priests and town elders negotiated a surrender, which took place at 16:00, with the ENDF soldiers rendering their arms to the TPLF.

[3] The ENDF soldiers were taken to a TPLF base at Abiy Addi, 150 kilometres to the south-west, where they were held for two weeks and provided with tea, bread and not much water.

[4] Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists visiting Dansha after the event described the military barracks as "bullet-scarred", a few shops boarded up, and most of the town as "unscathed".

[12] ENDF soldiers Takele Ambaye and Molla Kassa stated that the Sero base near the Eritrean border was attacked at 05:00 EAT on 4 November.

On the tenth day of the siege, a six-hour battle took place, with the TPLF using tanks, anti-aircraft guns and mortars.

[1] In a statement made late in December 2020, Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed stated that extrajudicial executions had occurred during the attacks.

He stated that the "TPLF identified and separated hundreds of unarmed Ethiopian soldiers of non-Tigrayan origin, tied their hands and feet together, massacred them in cold blood, and left their bodies lying in open air."

[3] They alleged that, in the months and days before the fighting erupted, Ethiopian armed forces had been mobilized towards Tigray, apparently also being deployed into nearby Eritrea in cooperation with that country's leadership.

[6] Some researchers at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute have stated that this claim "is not supported by interview data on the deployment patterns of the federal troops".

[4] In an interview with Dimtsi Weyane broadcast on 29 May 2021, General Tsadkan Gebretensae, member of the TPLF central committee and former head of the military during the TPLF led government, confirmed the attack, stating "the only option of the Government of Tigray was to use its smaller force to take control over the North Command which was large in numbers and capacity in just a very short period of time".

"[19] United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Tibor Nagy expressed "grave concern" about the attacks "by the Tigray People's Liberation Front, TPLF, on Ethiopian National Defense Force bases in the Tigray region".