Eritrea has rejected Ethiopia’s accusation that it is preparing to launch a war, describing the claim as “provocative sabre-rattling” amid rising tensions between the two Horn of Africa neighbours.
Relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia have been increasingly strained in recent months — more than three decades after Eritrea gained independence following a long and bitter armed struggle.
Earlier this month, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, alleging that Asmara was collaborating with a hardline faction of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to “wage war.”
The letter, signed by Ethiopia’s foreign minister, claimed that Eritrea and the TPLF faction were “funding, mobilising, and directing armed groups” in the Amhara region, where government forces have been battling insurgents for several years.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Ghebremeskel, in a response to AFP, denounced Addis Ababa’s claims as “a deceitful charade,” accusing Ethiopia of using propaganda to inflame regional tensions and pursue “irredentist ambitions.”
Meanwhile, in a separate letter dated Wednesday and received by AFP on Thursday, the TPLF dismissed Ethiopia’s accusations as “entirely unfounded.”
The latest exchanges mark a new low in relations between the two countries, which have oscillated between fragile peace and open hostility since Eritrea’s independence in 1993.
