Ethiopia accuses the Eritrean government of preparing for war.
According to the Addis Standard news agency, the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in a letter dated Thursday, October 2, to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: “The collusion between the Eritrean government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has become more apparent in recent months. The extremist wing of the group and the Eritrean government are actively preparing to launch a war against Ethiopia.”
In the letter, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gideon Timothy accused the Eritrean government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Movement of “providing credit, mobilizing forces and directing armed groups such as Fano to expand the conflict zones.” The Ethiopian official also said that the parties in question were involved in a recent attack by Fano to capture the town of Woldia in the Amhara region. He said that Tigray People’s Liberation Movement commanders and fighters had directly participated in the operation, stressing that these actions violated the Sustainable Peace Agreement through a Permanent Cessation of Hostilities signed in Pretoria, South Africa, in 2022. The Ethiopian Foreign Minister stressed that the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (EDF) had maintained a defensive posture and had shown “maximum restraint,” but warned that “this policy is not based on unlimited restraint.” Timothy described the Eritrean government as the “main architect of these heinous activities” and accused “Asmara” of providing financial, material and political support to the military conflict in Ethiopia. He added that Eritrea’s actions are aimed at “destabilizing and dividing Ethiopia under the pretext of feeling threatened by Ethiopia’s efforts to gain access to the sea.”
According to IRNA, relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have had many ups and downs since Eritrea’s independence and separation from Ethiopia in 1993. The two countries were involved in a bloody war between 1998 and 2000 over territorial and border disputes. After Eritrea’s independence, Ethiopia lost access to the sea and became a landlocked country that is now seeking access to the waters of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. To this end, in January 2024, it signed a memorandum of understanding with the autonomous and separatist region of “Somaliland” in northern Somalia, which angered the Somali government in Mogadishu.