ADDIS ABABA: 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, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front has been banned from political activity.
Relations have been extremely strained for several months between the two neighbours.
Ethiopia’s foreign minister wrote 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,“ the letter 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.
The federal army has been facing rebels in Amhara for several years.
Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Ghebremeskel and the TPLF have not yet responded to AFP’s requests for comment.
A bloody border war erupted between the two Horn of Africa countries from 1998 to 2000 after Eritrea’s independence.
Tens of thousands died during that conflict.
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.
Asmara accuses its landlocked neighbour of eyeing the Assab port. – AFP
