Eritrea accuses Ethiopia of destabilising region
Eritrea has accused Ethiopia of destabilizing the Horn of Africa by supporting proxy groups and interfering in regional conflicts. This marks a significant deterioration in relations between the two neighbors who previously normalized ties in 2018.
Why it matters
Signals potential instability in the Horn of Africa, a region already suffering from multiple civil conflicts.
Eritrea on Saturday (September 12) accused Ethiopia of destabilising the region, in the latest war of words between the two fractious Horn of Africa neighbours.
Eritrea won independence in 1993 after decades of armed unrest. A two-year war between 1998 and 2000 then left tens of thousands dead and sent diplomatic relations into a deep freeze.
The neighbours normalised ties when Abiy Ahmed took office in Ethiopia in 2018, pushing a rapprochement which earned him a Nobel Peace Prize the following year.
Eritrean forces backed the Ethiopian federal army during the conflict in the Tigray region. But since that war ended in late 2022, relations have dived anew, with Eritrea claiming that landlocked Ethiopia has designs on its port of Assab.
An Eritrean Foreign Ministry statement accused Mr. Ahmed's Prosperity Party of "actively destabilising the Horn of Africa.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in