In Mekelle, residents are weary of the prospect of further conflict.
"The youths are tired of violence," Tesfay Gebreabgzi, a shoe-shiner in his 20s, tells the BBC. "During the \[civil\] war, lots of people had the desire to fight. Now there's only fatigue."
Haimanot Gebremariam, a vegetable vendor in her 50s, says her two children joined the fighting on the Tigrayan side after war broke out in 2020.
But while her daughter returned safely, her son sustained permanent wounds. She says she does not want to see a return to "the dark days". The situation now "is very concerning", she tells the BBC.
"We still live with the trauma and the scar of the previous war. We don't want to shed tears again."
The Tigray region has not fully recovered from the disastrous impact of the conflict.
Nearly a million displaced people have still not returned home and some key infrastructure — including schools and health facilities - have not yet been rebuilt.
Nonetheless, despite the palpable anxiety, there is a semblance of normality in Mekelle. Businesses and shops are working regularly. And there is not a heavy presence of security forces on the streets.
But having lived through one of Africa's deadliest conflicts in recent memory, many are closely following every small development.
In one coffee house, young people are glued to their phones, watching clips from recent press statements made by the head of Tigray's interim administration, Getachew Reda, who is currently hundreds of miles away in Addis Ababa for "consultations" with federal authorities.
In another cafe, a young man said he was waiting to hear what the city's new mayor - who was appointed on Thursday by the dissident TPLF faction - would do to calm the public.
Everyone, it seems, is waiting to see what the next days and weeks will bring.