Ethiopia accuses Eritrea of 'actively' preparing for war

Ethiopian security forces patrol a street after the Ethiopian army took control of Hayk town of Amhara city from the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in Ethiopia on December 16, 2021. [AFP]

Ethiopia has accused Eritrea of joining forces with a hardline opposition faction in preparing to launch a war, according to a letter from the foreign affairs ministry obtained by AFP on Wednesday.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which dominated Ethiopian politics for some 30 years, has been banned from political activity.

Relations have been extremely strained for several months between the two neighbours, more than 30 years after Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia after a decades-long armed struggle.

Ethiopia's foreign minister wrote in the letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that "the collusion between the Eritrean government and the TPLF has become more evident over the past few months...".

"The hardliner faction of the TPLF and the Eritrean government are actively preparing to wage war against Ethiopia," it added.

The government in Addis Ababa also accuses its counterpart in Asmara and the TPLF of "funding, mobilizing and directing armed groups" in the Amhara region, where the federal army has been facing rebels for several years.

Eritrea's Information Minister Yemane Ghebremeskel and the TPLF have not yet responded to AFP's requests for comment on the accusations.

After independence in 1993, a bloody border war erupted between the two Horn of Africa countries from 1998 to 2000, leaving tens of thousands dead.

Relations thawed in 2018 after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power. The Eritrean army supported Ethiopian federal forces during the bloody war in the northern Tigray region between 2020 and 2022.

Since the conflict ended, relations have again turned frosty, with Asmara accusing its landlocked neighbour of eyeing the Assab port.