After the Rift.. Eritrea Accuses Ethiopia of "Expansionist Policy" and Threat to the Horn of Africa

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Following Asmara's decision to sever relations with Addis Ababa, Eritrea considered what it described as Ethiopia's "hostile stance towards it" to be "an integral part of an expansionist foreign policy that has destabilized the Horn of Africa region," in addition to an attempt to obtain a "seaport."

The Eritrean Foreign Ministry indicated, in a statement on Sunday, that in light of the current crisis in the Tigray region, "the Prosperity Party (Ethiopian) regime has escalated its external hostility towards Eritrea, combining renewed threats of invasion under the false pretext of 'self-defense' with an unjustified diplomatic offensive."

It also clarified that "over the past month, the Ethiopian regime has significantly changed its rhetoric in international forums, as previous hostile and pressing demands regarding 'maritime necessity' and 'obtaining sovereign access to the sea' have been replaced with calls for equitable access to the sea through reliable and dependable arrangements," according to the statement.

Meanwhile, the Eritrean Foreign Ministry described this stance as "revealing a calculated diplomatic deception aimed at misleading the international community and covering up an ongoing campaign to destabilize the region and expand regionally, which is now unfolding on the ground."

In this context, the Eritrean Foreign Ministry accused the Ethiopian government of "exploiting the presence of the African Union headquarters in the Ethiopian capital for continental diplomatic purposes, and violating international protocols by signing a unilateral and illegal memorandum of understanding with Somaliland, thereby directly violating the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Somalia and its territorial integrity," noting that "the Ethiopian government has exacerbated the catastrophic civil war in Sudan."

These statements came after Eritrea announced at the beginning of October that it had cut all diplomatic relations with Ethiopia, in response to Addis Ababa's decision to close its embassy in Asmara and expel 10 Eritrean diplomats, including the chargé d'affaires and diplomats accredited to the African Union.

Asmara stated that it "had no choice but to reciprocate," and announced a complete severance of diplomatic relations with Addis Ababa, a move that came amid escalating fighting in northern Ethiopia, particularly in the Tigray region.

It is worth noting that the roots of the current tension date back to the deterioration of relations between the two countries after years of rapprochement that followed the peace agreement in 2018, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki announced the end of the state of war and the resumption of diplomatic relations and the opening of borders between the two countries, but relations later witnessed a setback, especially after the war in Tigray between 2020 and 2022.

The recent diplomatic escalation coincided with renewed fighting in Tigray, where Addis Ababa accused Eritrea of supporting an armed coalition led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front, while Asmara denied these accusations.

The issue of Ethiopia's access to the Red Sea is one of the main sources of tension between the two countries. Ethiopia, being a landlocked country, has intensified its efforts in recent years to obtain a maritime outlet, while Asmara views some of the Ethiopian proposals as a threat to its sovereignty and territorial integrity.