Our monthly conflict tracker highlights three conflict risk alerts in September.

• Ethiopia’s federal and Tigray forces returned to frontline fighting, shattering the March ceasefire. Hostilities could further escalate along multiple fronts, threatening prospects for long-awaited peace talks. 
   
• In Eritrea, the renewed hostilities in Ethiopia could end the volatile calm along the countries’ shared border, as Eritrean forces once more become embroiled in the conflict.
   
• In Libya, the worst fighting in years erupted in the capital Tripoli between forces loyal to the two rival governments, raising the prospect of a return to full-blown war.

CrisisWatch spotlighted deteriorations in ten countries in August.

• Tensions soared in the Taiwan Strait as China conducted large-scale live-fire exercises around Taiwan as part of its response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island.
   
• In Sierra Leone, President Bio accused the political opposition of an insurrection, as deadly protests over the rising cost of living erupted across the country.
   
• Al-Shabaab conducted its first major assault in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu since President Mohamud returned to power, killing over twenty people.
   
• In Israel-Palestine, Israeli forces launched an offensive against the Islamic Jihad faction in Gaza that killed dozens of Palestinians in the worst fighting since May 2021.
   
• In northern Syria, Turkish drone strikes and cross-border attacks on Turkish army sites by Kurdish-led forces fueled a deadly escalation that claimed lives on both sides.
   
• Ecuador’s President Lasso imposed a state of emergency in Guayaquil city after a bombing killed five people. The attack marked a dramatic escalation of violence in a country plagued by rising gang-related crime.

Aside from the scores of conflict situations we usually assess, we tracked notable developments in August in Brazil, Nile Waters, Rwanda and Togo.