Ethiopia acknowledges Eritrean troops role in Tigray War as regional tensions rise News
Dr. Ondřej Havelka (cestovatel), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ethiopia acknowledges Eritrean troops role in Tigray War as regional tensions rise

Ethiopia’s federal government on Tuesday acknowledged for the first time that troops from neighboring Eritrea took part in the war in the Tigray region, which formally ended in 2022. The government said Eritrean forces were responsible for mass killings, destroying homes, and looting factories.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s acknowledgment marks a major change in Ethiopia’s official position. During the earlier stages of the conflict, he and other officials either denied Eritrean involvement or referred to allied forces vaguely without naming Eritrea outright. In 2021, Abiy admitted that Eritrean troops had entered Tigray after months of denials, but did not accuse them of specific atrocities.

Eritrea’s Information Minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, rejected the allegations in comments to the Associated Press. He dismissed Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s statements as false, describing them as “cheap and despicable lies,” and said Eritrea would not respond further.

The war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region began in November 2020 after months of escalating tensions between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which had previously dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition. The government did not provide independent figures on the scale of the abuses, but estimates suggest more than 600,000 people died over the course of the two‑year war from violence, famine, and other conflict‑related causes.

The Prime Minister’s statement comes amid reports of renewed fighting in the region and rising tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Ethiopian officials accuse Eritrea of supplying weapons to rebel groups, while Eritrean authorities counter that Ethiopia is seeking to assert control over Eritrean seaports. Ethiopia’s lack of direct access to the Red Sea remains a central point of tension. The country became landlocked after Eritrea gained independence in 1993. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has since argued that Ethiopia cannot remain without sea access indefinitely, but said the breakdown in relations with Eritrea began during the Tigray war, not over maritime access. In 2025, Ethiopia was accused by human rights groups of forcibly deporting Eritrean refugees back to their home country, sparking further points of tension between the two countries.

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