For someone waiting to hear from family, a working phone connection can matter more immediately than who controls a government building. But it answers a different question from whether normal life has resumed.
AFP's late-Sunday report says internet, telephone and mobile-payment services had returned to Mekelle. It describes residents hoping banks would reopen on Monday, not confirmed bank reopenings. Most shops were still closed in that account.
One resident interviewed by the agency described relief mixed with fear of a longer conflict. These are reported experiences, not a survey of the city, and Dahsas has not interviewed those residents independently.
A city update, not an all-clear for Tigray
AFP's separate city dispatch also reports restored communications. The two pieces come from the same news agency and include overlapping interviews. They should not be counted as two independent confirmations.
Our earlier blackout reporting describes an earlier period. The newer information narrows that picture for Mekelle; it does not establish that services have returned everywhere in Tigray. We have not performed a network measurement or established continuous coverage across the city.
A message getting through and an entire network functioning are different things. Equally, one unanswered call cannot establish another shutdown. Neither observation alone explains the wider situation.
The next questions are ordinary ones
Can residents withdraw money? Can traders reopen? Are connections staying up? These are questions for the next round of reporting, not services we can promise are available today.
For now, the narrow improvement is worth reporting without turning it into reassurance the evidence cannot support. Being able to hear from a city again is important. It is not proof that the crisis there has ended.