Ethiopian Forces Enter Adigrat
Three local residents reported that Ethiopian government troops, together with allied militia, moved into Adigrat on Saturday. The city sits close to Eritrea's border. One of those residents described seeing soldiers on patrol alongside military vehicles. Reuters was unable to independently establish whether the army had secured full control of Adigrat, which is roughly 30 km (19 miles) from the Eritrean frontier. Ethiopia's military gave no immediate reply to a request for comment, and municipal officials could not be reached that day.[S1][S2][S3]
The reported Eritrean incursion, which Eritrea denies and Reuters has not independently confirmed, has fueled concerns that full-scale war could resume along Ethiopia's northern frontier, an area of past clashes between the two countries. In a letter sent to UN Security Council members this week, Ethiopia stated that Eritrean forces had pushed as far as 60 km (37 miles) into Tigray in recent days, cautioning that foreign troops on its soil forced it to defend itself. Eritrea calls the incursion reports untrue and says they serve an Ethiopian plan to justify aggression.[S1]
Blasts were reported around Adigrat on Wednesday and Thursday, while the US-based conflict monitor ACLED reported that Ethiopia carried out drone strikes on Eritrean forces, who subsequently pulled back from positions near the city. An Adigrat resident told Reuters the explosions persisted on Friday, saying they had heard them repeatedly overnight and through the morning several kilometres outside town. Neither the spokesperson for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed nor Eritrea's Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel responded immediately to requests for comment.[S1]
Sea Access and Regional Tensions
On Friday, Yemane said Eritrea had exercised restraint and accused landlocked Ethiopia of declaring a war of aggression by announcing in 2023 that it would secure sovereign access to the sea. Ethiopia held a coastline for many years until Eritrea won independence from Addis Ababa in 1993. Ethiopia contends that regaining sea access is a matter of survival, though it has said this should be achieved through peaceful means and dialogue.[S1]
Ethiopia has charged Eritrea with supporting the rebel coalition that has fought government forces since September 23 across the northern regions of Tigray, Amhara and Afar. Eritrea denies this. Following years of conflict, the two countries reached a peace deal in 2018 that brought Ethiopia's Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize. Eritrea backed Ethiopia's federal government during the 2020-2022 civil war in Tigray, but ties deteriorated again near the end of that conflict. Last month's outbreak of fighting marked the worst escalation since the Tigray war, which killed hundreds of thousands.[S1]
According to an analysis in The Jerusalem Post, the Ethiopian-Eritrean clashes have stoked fears of a broader war as Egypt assembles a Red Sea alliance. Other conflicts in the region and mounting tensions around the Red Sea have added to the risks.[S1][S4]
