Web monitor NetBlocks said on Friday it had detected an internet disruption in northern Ethiopia, where war broke out this week between the federal military and forces from the Tigray region and their allies.

"Confirmed: Network data indicate a subnational internet disruption in northern Ethiopia corresponding to reports of a telecoms blackout in Tigray," the monitor said on its official social media account.

The cause of the disruption was not immediately clear. Spokespeople for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office and for Tigray's regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A Tigrayan source living overseas who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were unable to reach people in Tigray and said that their contacts in the capital Addis Ababa had also experienced difficulties connecting with relatives in the region, with the outages sparking fears of a return to the dire conditions seen in the 2020 to 2022 war in northern Ethiopia.

During that war, which ended with a peace deal in November 2022, Tigray was largely cut off from the outside world as communications were severed, and access to food, cash and ​medicines was severely restricted, pushing hundreds of ​thousands of people into famine-like conditions.

The latest outbreak of violence is the most serious escalation since that conflict, with Tigrayan forces seizing three local airports and launching attacks in the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions with allies there this week against federal troops.

The fighting prompted people in Tigray to rush to shops on Wednesday and Thursday to stock up on basic supplies and withdraw cash, with residents telling Reuters that shelves were being emptied out as a result of panic-buying.