Eritrea Severs Diplomatic Ties With Ethiopia Amid Escalating Conflict

Eritrea has announced that it is severing all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia, following Addis Ababa’s decision to close its embassy in Asmara and expel Eritrean diplomats.

The Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country had no alternative but to respond to Ethiopia’s actions. In a statement, it said Eritrea would “reciprocate in kind and sever all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia”.

Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would shut its embassy in Asmara in response to what it described as Eritrea’s “direct and indirect acts of hostility and belligerence against Ethiopia”.

The ministry also declared 10 Eritrean diplomats in Addis Ababa persona non grata and ordered them to leave Ethiopia within 48 hours. It said the diplomats had been involved in activities that posed a direct threat to the country’s national security.

Competing accusations

Eritrea rejected Ethiopia’s allegations, describing them as “astounding”. Its foreign ministry said Ethiopia had been pursuing “an agenda of incessant hostility” and accused Addis Ababa of waging war to secure access to the Red Sea.

The Eritrean ministry also accused Ethiopia of hosting, training and arming Eritrean opposition groups. Those allegations, like Ethiopia’s claims about Eritrean activities, have not been independently verified in the source material.

The Ethiopian government has separately accused Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt of supporting an opposition alliance led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Haji Awol Arba, chief administrator of Ethiopia’s Afar region, told Al Jazeera that Eritrean soldiers had crossed into Afar to take part in the alliance’s offensive. That account has also not been independently verified.

Fighting and regional tensions

The diplomatic rupture comes as fighting continues between Ethiopian federal forces and armed opposition groups. Explosions were heard in Addis Ababa, while clashes were reported in the northern Afar region.

The diplomatic dispute has also involved Egypt. Ethiopia declared an Egyptian diplomat persona non grata and ordered him to leave within 48 hours, according to the state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation. Egypt responded by declaring an Ethiopian embassy counsellor persona non grata and giving him 48 hours to depart, Al Qahera News reported, citing an Egyptian official.

United States Representatives Ilhan Omar, Jim McGovern and John Garamendi urged all parties in Ethiopia to “immediately recommit to peace negotiations”. They warned that the widening conflict threatened Ethiopia and the wider region, while civilians were bearing the greatest burden of the violence.

Strained relations

Eritrea fought alongside the Ethiopian government during the Tigray war, which lasted from 2020 to 2022. Eritrea was not a party to the Pretoria Peace Agreement that ended the fighting in November 2022, and relations between the two countries later deteriorated.

Ethiopia annexed Eritrea in 1962, while Eritrea secured independence in 1993 after an armed struggle led by President Isaias Afwerki. When Abiy Ahmed became Ethiopia’s prime minister in 2018, his government moved to ease tensions and restore relations with Eritrea.

However, Ethiopia’s ambitions for direct access to the Red Sea have contributed to renewed tensions with Eritrea. The two governments have now taken reciprocal diplomatic measures, although the source material does not specify how or when the severing of ties and embassy closure will be implemented.