ADDIS ABABA, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s foreign minister has accused neighboring Eritrea of military aggression and supporting armed groups within Ethiopian territory, according to a letter seen by Reuters and verified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The two long-time enemies, who fought a war between 1998 and 2000, signed a peace deal in 2018 and were allies during Ethiopia’s two-year war against regional authorities in the northern Tigray region.
But Eritrea was not party to the 2022 agreement that ended the Tigray conflict, and relations between the two nations have deteriorated drastically since then.
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Recent clashes between Tigrayan forces and Ethiopian troops have raised fears of a return to war.
An Eritrean government spokesman said authorities were checking whether the letter had been handed over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The February 7 letter from Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos to his Eritrean counterpart, Osman Saleh, said that Eritrean forces have occupied Ethiopian territory along parts of their common border for a long period and have provided material support to militant groups operating inside Ethiopia.
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“The incursions of Eritrean troops deeper into Ethiopian territory… are not just provocations, but acts of direct aggression,” the letter said, demanding the immediate withdrawal of Eritrean forces and an end to all cooperation with armed groups.
Gedion said recent developments point to a “new escalation,” citing joint military maneuvers between Eritrean forces and Ethiopian armed groups near the northwestern border.
Eritrea has been angered by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s repeated public statements that landlocked Ethiopia has a right to access to the sea — comments that many in Eritrea, which lies along the Red Sea, consider an implied threat of military action.
In his letter, Gedion said Ethiopia remained open to dialogue if Eritrea respected its territorial integrity. He said Addis Ababa was willing to participate in good faith negotiations on all issues of mutual interest, including maritime affairs and access to the Red Sea through the Eritrean port of Assab.
(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw in Addis Ababa and Giulia Paravicini in Nairobi)
