Eritrea and Ethiopia shutter embassies as new Red Sea conflict looms - Middle East Eye
Eritrea and Ethiopia have severed all diplomatic ties after accusing one another of engaging in hostile actions, in a major flare-up that could foreshadow another war on the volatile Red Sea.
Ethiopia on Thursday announced it was expelling 10 Eritrean diplomats and closing its embassy in Eritrea’s capital of Asmara, after reports of explosions in Addis Ababa.
The strike punctured Addis Ababa’s relative calm despite Ethiopia’s federal government battling an alliance of rebel movements opposed to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Ethiopia’s regions of Tigray, Amhara and Afar.
Western and regional officials in Addis Ababa confirmed to Middle East Eye the sound of explosions in the capital due to a drone strike. AFP reported that the explosion rocked the Ethiopian National Defence Force headquarters in the Tor Hayloch area of Addis Ababa.
In a statement, Ethiopia accused Eritrea of engaging in “direct and indirect acts of hostility and belligerence” against it.
Eritrea said in response it was severing all diplomatic relations with Ethiopia, accusing it of pursuing “an agenda of incessant hostility” against it.
“In parallel with these aggressive intentions, Ethiopia has gone further to host, train, and provide arms to an assortment of what it calls ‘Eritrean armed opposition groups’ to stoke internal conflict for ‘regime change’ in Eritrea,” Eritrea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Eritrea and Ethiopia have been at odds for months, with regional diplomats warning that ties were deteriorating fast.
The two briefly formed an alliance to fight the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party in Ethiopia's Tigray region, during Ethiopia’s 2020-2022 civil war. Since then, they have returned to being bitter foes.
Addis Ababa has made claims against Eritrea’s Red Sea coastline and accuses Eritrea of supporting rebel groups like the TPLF, which Asmara denies.
"[Abiy Ahmed] has a two-waters strategy like Israel. Only for him it is from the Nile River to the Red Sea," Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh told MEE in an exclusive interview from Asmara last month. He referred to an Israeli expansionist vision that stretches from the Gaza Strip to the Jordan River at the frontier of the occupied West Bank.
With fighting already flaring between Ethiopia’s federal government and the TPLF, a breakdown in relations with Eritrea could widen the war to the Red Sea at a time when Yemen and Sudan are both in conflict.
The risk is that the conflict could draw in regional players, including Egypt, Turkey, Somalia, and the Gulf states.
The TPLF is already aligned with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which are fighting the Rapid Support Forces, a militia accused of genocide that is backed by the UAE and has training camps in Ethiopia. Eritrea is aligned with Egypt and Saudi Arabia in supporting the SAF.
One of Ethiopia’s staunchest supporters is the UAE, which has provided drones and other military supplies to Abiy Ahmed’s forces.
Saleh also told MEE that Asmara believes the UAE is cooperating with Israel against Asmara.
Israel has a historical precedent for supporting Ethiopia. In the late 1970s and late 1980s, Israel provided arms to Ethiopia's Marxist Derg government, which were used against Eritrean fighters.
