Asmara writes to the UN following Ethiopian accusations and reports of troop movements in Tigray, warning of an inevitable military conflict.
Borkena Desk
TORONTO, Canada — Eritrea’s Ministry of Information wrote a letter to the United Nations Security Council days after Ethiopia sent an appeal letter claiming an invasion of Ethiopian territories by Eritrea in the Tigray region.
Osman Saleh, Eritrea’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, called Ethiopia’s appeal “deceitful attempts to rationalize its brazen acts of war against a sovereign UN member State in “self-defense” terms.”
Ethiopia has accused Eritrea of violating its sovereign territory and supporting armed groups, including the TPLF. Following the Pretoria agreement, Eritrea and the TPLF formed a political and military alliance. Domestically, the TPLF also established the “Alliance for Survival,” a coalition of various armed groups.
Earlier this week, several media outlets, including the BBC and Reuters, reported that armed Eritrean troops were seen in the town of Adigrat, one of the areas in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. The report followed the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s (TPLF) “strategic retreat,” withdrawing its forces from several towns and cities in northern Ethiopia, including the seat of the regional state, Mekelle. Eritrea denied the report. The TPLF previously formed a political and military alliance with the Eritrean government as relations between the TPLF and the federal government led by Abiy Ahmed deteriorated.
Eritrea wrote to the UN Security Council expressing concern over the Abiy Ahmed government’s stance on gaining access to the Red Sea through peaceful means or by force if necessary.
Eritrea’s ministry recalled its previous letters to the United Nations regarding the matter. “Eritrea had repeatedly brought to the attention of the international community, Ethiopia’s dogged pursuit of an unprovoked agenda of war against Eritrea to forcefully acquire “sovereign access to the sea” in flagrant breach of Eritrea’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Mr. Osman stated in his letter.
Additionally, he cited the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ethiopian Defense Force as saying the “ultimate objective of the war was to invade Assab, that Mekelle, the capital city of the Tigray Administrative Region, was a mere stop-over towards the invasion of Eritrea.” The Ethiopian Defense Force has not officially announced that it is in control of Mekelle; however, several media outlets have reported on it. Ethiopian Airlines has announced that it will resume flights to the city six times a day starting Sunday.
Eritrea claims Ethiopia has already declared an “unprovoked war” and requested the UN Security Council “to forcefully condemn Ethiopia’s deplorable declaration of war against Eritrea.”
Given developments this week in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, military conflict between the two countries is increasingly becoming inevitable. Sources in Tigray linked to the Tigray Peace Force—an armed group that broke away from the Tigray Defense Force and is currently supported by Abiy Ahmed’s government—reported that the Ethiopian Defense Force carried out several drone strikes targeting Eritrean troops in Eritrea. This story has not been independently verified.
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