Eritrea severed diplomatic ties with Ethiopia on Thursday, retaliating for Addis Ababa’s expulsion of 10 Eritrean diplomats and its announced closure of the Ethiopian embassy in Asmara, as fighting between federal forces and an alliance of armed opposition groups intensified in northern Ethiopia.
“Eritrea has no option but to reciprocate in kind and sever all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia with all the negative corollaries that this entails,” its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on X.
The neighbors’ relations have long been strained by territorial disputes and mutual accusations of interference. Ethiopia’s army chief has accused Eritrea, Sudan’s army and Egypt of backing the armed groups now fighting federal forces. All three countries denied the allegations, with Egypt adding that it strictly respects the sovereignty of neighboring states.
The rupture comes nearly four years after a peace deal ended a devastating two-year war in the Tigray region. Clashes between Tigrayan and federal forces resumed on Aug. 1 near the Sudanese border, according to the conflict monitor ACLED, and on Sept. 23 Tigrayan forces seized the airports in Mekelle, Axum and Shire and pushed into neighboring Afar and Amhara. The government calls it an “all-out offensive.” The Tigray People’s Liberation Front says it is fighting a “defensive war” and accuses federal forces of attacking it with aircraft, drones and artillery.
On Sept. 20, seven armed and political groups announced the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival, aimed at removing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government, which it accuses of “dictatorial rule,” and installing a transitional administration. The TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before Mr. Ahmed took office in 2018, is its main military force, alongside the Amhara Fano National Movement and the Oromo Liberation Army; the Sidama National Liberation Front said on Sept. 25 that it would also join. Membership is contested, though. Jalale Getachew Birru, a senior East Africa analyst at ACLED, said one listed member disavowed the alliance and another is split, and ACLED counted only three groups actively fighting federal forces as of Sept. 26.
On the ground, government-aligned forces captured Alamata, a supply hub for troops, fuel and food about 75 miles south of Mekelle, on Sept. 28. Days earlier, between 15 and 17 drone strikes hit the town, including several schools and a hospital, according to ACLED. Government forces retook Sekota in Amhara on Sept. 27, while Tigrayan forces and the Afar armed group Ugugumo have advanced into Afar. That advance could threaten the Semera-Djibouti corridor, Ethiopia’s main route for imports, including fuel, in a landlocked country of about 139 million people, Africa’s second most populous.
Analysts warn the fighting could spill into neighboring states and further destabilize Sudan, Al Jazeera reported. Inside Ethiopia, telecommunications have been cut across much of Tigray and commercial flights have been suspended, separating families and hampering humanitarian operations.