Eritrea on Thursday rejected Ethiopia’s accusation that it was preparing to launch a war, describing the claim as “provocative sabre-rattling” amid growing tensions between the Horn of Africa neighbours.
Relations between the two countries have been tense for months, more than three decades after Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia following a prolonged armed struggle.
Earlier this month, Ethiopia’s foreign ministry sent a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, alleging that Asmara was working with a hardline faction of the opposition Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to “wage war.”
The letter, signed by Ethiopia’s foreign minister, claimed both parties were “funding, mobilising and directing armed groups” in the Amhara region, where government troops have long battled rebels.
Eritrea’s Information Minister, Yemane Ghebremeskel, told AFP that “the intense propaganda campaign aimed at fuelling irredentist ambitions has been accompanied by provocative sabre-rattling,” condemning Addis Ababa’s letter to the UN as a “deceitful charade.”
In a separate letter dated Wednesday and received by AFP on Thursday, the TPLF dismissed Ethiopia’s accusations as “entirely baseless,” expressing concern that the federal government appeared to be laying the groundwork for another regional war based on false claims.
The party described the allegations as a “dangerous inversion of reality,” arguing that Ethiopia was trying “to portray the aggressor as the victim and the victims as the aggressor.”
After Eritrea gained independence in 1993, a bloody border war broke out between the two nations from 1998 to 2000, killing tens of thousands. Relations improved briefly in 2018 when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed signed a peace deal with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, earning Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019.
However, Eritrean troops later fought alongside Ethiopian federal forces during the Tigray conflict between 2020 and 2022, which reportedly claimed about 600,000 lives.
Since the war’s end, relations have again deteriorated, with Asmara accusing Addis Ababa of coveting Eritrea’s Assab port on the Red Sea. Abiy has repeatedly stated Ethiopia’s wish to regain sea access, which it lost after Eritrea’s independence.
Ghebremeskel accused Ethiopia of attempting to undermine Eritrea’s “hard-won independence and sovereignty” by seeking renewed control over the port.
“For the past two years, the regime’s policy mantra has centred on securing sovereign access to the sea through legal means if possible, or by force if necessary,” he said.
A US monitoring group reported in June that Eritrea was rebuilding its army and destabilising neighbouring states, but Asmara dismissed the claim, blaming Ethiopia for the renewed regional tensions.