Eritrea severs diplomatic ties with Ethiopia in tit-for-tat move

Ethiopia says it will shut its embassy in Asmara, declares 10 Eritrean diplomats persona non grata.

Ties between Ethiopia and Eritrea have been historically fragile [File: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]

Eritrea says it is breaking diplomatic ties with its neighbour Ethiopia in response to the expulsion of diplomats from Addis Ababa, as fighting between Ethiopia’s federal forces and a coalition of armed opposition groups intensifies .

“Eritrea has no option but to reciprocate in kind and sever all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia with all the negative corollaries that this entails,” its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on X on Thursday.

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This came shortly after Ethiopia announced it would close its embassy in Asmara “in response to Eritrea’s direct and indirect acts of hostility and belligerence against Ethiopia”.

Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also declared 10 Eritrean diplomats in Addis Ababa, including the charge d’affaires and others accredited to the African Union, “persona non grata for involvement in activities that pose a direct threat to Ethiopia’s national security”, requiring them to leave the country within 48 hours.

In its statement, Eritrea’s ministry said claims of its involvement in hostile activities were “astounding”.

“In reality, it is Ethiopia which has been pursuing an agenda of incessant hostility,” it said, adding that Addis Ababa had waged war against Eritrea to gain access to the Red Sea.

It also accused Ethiopia of hosting, training and arming Eritrean opposition groups to stoke internal conflict.

Addis Ababa has in turn accused Eritrea, ⁠Sudan and Egypt of supporting an opposition alliance led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that has fought against troops loyal to Ethiopia’s federal government since last week.

Ethiopia’s government also declared on Thursday an Egyptian diplomat persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country within 48 hours, according to the state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation.

Egypt responded in kind by declaring an Ethiopian embassy counsellor in Egypt persona non grata and giving him 48 hours to leave, the state-affiliated Al Qahera News reported, citing an Egyptian official.

Fierce clashes between Ethiopian federal forces and the armed opposition groups are continuing. On Wednesday and Thursday, explosions were heard in Addis Ababa, while fighters have also clashed with government forces in the northern Afar region .

In a statement on Thursday, United States Representatives Ilhan Omar, Jim McGovern, and John Garamendi expressed concern over the escalating fighting and called on all parties in Ethiopia to “immediately recommit to peace negotiations”.

“This increased conflict threatens the entire country and the region as a whole, which is already reeling from the previous war in Northern Ethiopia and the devastating conflict in Sudan. Ordinary civilians are bearing the brunt of this violence,” the statement reads.

Days after the latest clashes broke out last week, the chief administrator of the Afar region, Haji Awol ⁠Arba, told Al Jazeera that Eritrean soldiers had crossed into Afar to join the alliance’s offensive.

The fighting marks the biggest escalation since the end of a 2020-2022 civil war. Eritrea fought alongside the Ethiopian government during the Tigray war, but relations between the neighbours have since deteriorated.

Eritrea was not a party to the Pretoria Peace Agreement that ended the fighting in November 2022, and ⁠relations between the two nations quickly soured.

Ties between the neighbours have been historically fragile. In 1962, Ethiopia annexed Eritrea. An armed independence struggle, led by Eritrea’s current President Isaias Afwerki, secured independence in 1993.

When Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, he moved to end the tensions and normalise diplomatic relations with President Isaias. But Abiy’s ambitions to seek direct sea access for landlocked Ethiopia have contributed to tensions.

In recent years, Abiy has repeated that Ethiopia has a right to sea access, words that officials in Asmara take as a declaration of territorial conflict with Eritrea.

埃塞俄比亚宣布将关闭其驻阿斯马拉大使馆，并宣布10名厄立特里亚外交官为不受欢迎的人。

埃塞俄比亚和厄立特里亚之间的关系历来脆弱[文件：Tiksa Negeri/路透社]

厄立特里亚表示，由于埃塞俄比亚联邦军队与武装反对派联盟之间的战斗愈演愈烈，埃塞俄比亚驱逐其外交官出境，厄立特里亚将断绝与邻国埃塞俄比亚的外交关系。

“厄立特里亚别无选择，只能以牙还牙，断绝与埃塞俄比亚的一切外交关系，并承担由此带来的所有负面后果，”厄立特里亚外交部周四在X网站上发表声明称。

（共3条，第1条）埃塞俄比亚指责苏丹和埃及支持提格雷叛军，战斗仍在继续

埃塞俄比亚战事升级：最新进展如何？（共3条，第2条）

埃塞俄比亚指责地区竞争对手，冲突蔓延风险上升（共3条，此为第3条）

此前不久，埃塞俄比亚宣布将关闭其驻阿斯马拉大使馆，“以回应厄立特里亚对埃塞俄比亚的直接和间接敌对和好战行为”。

埃塞俄比亚外交部还宣布，包括驻非盟临时代办和其他官员在内的 10 名厄立特里亚驻亚的斯亚贝巴外交官为“不受欢迎的人”，理由是他们参与了对埃塞俄比亚国家安全构成直接威胁的活动，并要求他们在 48 小时内离开该国。

厄立特里亚外交部在声明中表示，有关其参与敌对活动的说法“令人震惊”。

“实际上，是埃塞俄比亚一直在推行持续不断的敌对行动，”声明称，并补充说，亚的斯亚贝巴曾对厄立特里亚发动战争，以获取进入红海的通道。

报告还指责埃塞俄比亚窝藏、训练和武装厄立特里亚反对派团体，以煽动内部冲突。

亚的斯亚贝巴方面则指责厄立特里亚、苏丹和埃及支持由提格雷人民解放阵线（提人阵）领导的反对派联盟，该联盟自上周以来一直在与效忠埃塞俄比亚联邦政府的军队作战。

据埃塞俄比亚国家广播公司报道，埃塞俄比亚政府周四宣布一名埃及外交官为不受欢迎的人，并命令其在 48 小时内离开该国。

据埃及官方媒体《开罗新闻报》援引一位埃及官员的话报道，埃及也采取了对等回应，宣布埃塞俄比亚驻埃及大使馆一名参赞为不受欢迎的人，并勒令其在 48 小时内离开。

埃塞俄比亚联邦军队与武装反对派之间的激烈冲突仍在继续。周三和周四，亚的斯亚贝巴传出爆炸声，与此同时，在北部阿法尔地区，武装分子也与政府军发生冲突。

周四，美国众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔、吉姆·麦戈文和约翰·加拉门迪发表声明，对不断升级的战斗表示关切，并呼吁埃塞俄比亚各方“立即重新致力于和平谈判”。

声明指出：“冲突加剧威胁着整个国家和地区，而该地区此前已饱受埃塞俄比亚北部战争和苏丹毁灭性冲突的蹂躏。普通平民首当其冲地承受着暴力带来的冲击。”

在上周最新冲突爆发几天后，阿法尔地区首席行政长官哈吉·阿沃尔·阿尔巴告诉半岛电视台，厄立特里亚士兵已经越境进入阿法尔，加入联盟的进攻。

此次冲突是自2020年至2022年内战结束以来最大规模的冲突升级。厄立特里亚在提格雷战争期间曾与埃塞俄比亚政府并肩作战，但此后两国关系恶化。

厄立特里亚并非 2022 年 11 月结束战争的《比勒陀利亚和平协议》的缔约方，两国关系迅速恶化。

两国关系历来脆弱。1962年，埃塞俄比亚吞并了厄立特里亚。1993年，在厄立特里亚现任总统伊萨亚斯·阿费沃基的领导下，厄立特里亚发动武装独立战争，最终获得独立。

2018年埃塞俄比亚总理阿比·艾哈迈德上台后，他着手结束与伊朗总统伊萨亚斯之间的紧张关系，并实现外交关系正常化。但阿比寻求为内陆国家埃塞俄比亚获得直接出海口的雄心壮志，反而加剧了双方的紧张关系。

近年来，阿比反复强调埃塞俄比亚有权获得出海口，阿斯马拉官员将此番言论视为与厄立特里亚发生领土冲突的宣言。