Along the ancient fault lines of the Horn of Africa, two neighbors who briefly reconciled have returned to war. Ethiopia and Eritrea — bound and divided by shared history, contested borders, and rival ambitions over Red Sea access — have exchanged accusations of invasion and answered them with drone strikes deep inside Tigray. What began as a collapsed ceasefire has become a confrontation that now sits before the UN Security Council, carrying with it the weight of unresolved grievances stretching back to Eritrean independence in 1993.
Ethiopia accuses Eritrea of 'all-out invasion' as troops cross border, drone strikes reported
Eritrean troops have advanced 60km into Tigray, prompting drone strikes
Mark
So Eritrea sent soldiers across the border into Ethiopia—that's the core fact here?
Mimi
Yes, and Ethiopia says they've gone 60 kilometers into Tigray. That's not a small incursion. Ethiopia responded with drone strikes on Eritrean forces in Adigrat.
Luke
But we should note—the BBC can't report from Tigray directly. The drone strikes are confirmed by Acled and residents, but we're getting details through secondhand accounts and one conflict monitor.
Mark
What's the history between these two countries that led to this moment?
Mimi
They were enemies for decades. Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia in 1993. Then during a recent civil war—2020 to 2022—Eritrea actually fought alongside the Ethiopian government against the Tigray People's Liberation Front. But that alliance has completely collapsed.
Luke
And the reason it collapsed matters. Ethiopia's prime minister wants to control one of Eritrea's Red Sea ports. That's not a small disagreement—that's territorial ambition.
Mark
So they went from allies to enemies in a few years?
Mimi
Faster than that. They normalized relations in 2018 when the current prime minister took power. Then last week they severed diplomatic ties. Now Eritrean troops are on Ethiopian soil.
Mark
Who's actually fighting in Tigray right now?
Mimi
The federal Ethiopian government is fighting the Tigray People's Liberation Front. Eritrea says it's not involved. Ethiopia says Eritrea is backing the TPLF. Both are accusing each other of breaking a 2022 ceasefire.
Luke
And there's a third piece—the TPLF just joined a broader alliance of armed groups against the federal government in September. So the conflict is potentially expanding beyond just Tigray.
Mark
What does Eritrea say about all this?
Mimi
They say Ethiopia is the aggressor, that Ethiopia is using this as cover to try to seize Eritrean territory and destabilize their government. They deny backing the TPLF.
Luke
Both countries are making mirror-image accusations. Each says the other started it. That's the diplomatic reality right now—competing claims, no neutral observers on the ground to verify.
Der Puls
- Eritrean forces have pushed as far as 60 kilometers into Ethiopia's Tigray region, prompting Ethiopian drone strikes on Eritrean troop concentrations in the town of Adigrat.
- Both governments are locked in mirror-image accusations — Ethiopia calls it an 'all-out invasion,' while Eritrea insists it is the victim of an 'unprovoked war of aggression.'
- The crisis is rooted in compounding fractures: a broken 2022 ceasefire, renewed fighting between Ethiopia's federal army and the TPLF, and a bitter dispute over Ethiopian ambitions to control an Eritrean Red Sea port.
- Diplomatic ties between Addis Ababa and Asmara were severed just days ago, erasing the fragile normalization that had existed since 2018 and leaving no formal channel for de-escalation.
- With Eritrean vehicles reportedly withdrawing after overnight strikes and the TPLF now allied with a broader coalition of armed groups, the conflict risks expanding well beyond Tigray's borders.
Along the ancient fault lines of the Horn of Africa, two neighbors who briefly reconciled have returned to war. Ethiopia and Eritrea — bound and divided by shared history, contested borders, and rival ambitions over Red Sea access — have exchanged accusations of invasion and answered them with drone strikes deep inside Tigray. What began as a collapsed ceasefire has become a confrontation that now sits before the UN Security Council, carrying with it the weight of unresolved grievances stretching back to Eritrean independence in 1993.
Eritrean military convoys have crossed into Ethiopia's Tigray region, advancing as far as 60 kilometers, and Ethiopia has responded with waves of drone strikes targeting Eritrean forces in the town of Adigrat. Ethiopia's foreign minister formally accused Eritrea of an 'all-out invasion' in a letter to the UN Security Council, invoking the right to self-defense. Eritrea's government fired back with equal force, calling the framing a fabrication and accusing Ethiopia of waging an unprovoked war of aggression — with the ultimate aim, Asmara claims, of seizing one of its Red Sea ports.
The immediate spark was a resumption of fighting two weeks ago between Ethiopia's federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the force that controls the Tigray region. Both sides accuse the other of breaking the 2022 ceasefire that had ended a devastating civil war. The current crisis carries a particular irony: during that earlier war, Eritrea fought alongside Ethiopia against the TPLF. That alliance has now collapsed entirely, and Ethiopia claims Eritrea is actively backing its former enemy.
The deeper fracture runs through years of accumulated grievance. Ethiopia and Eritrea only normalized relations in 2018 under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, ending decades of estrangement dating to Eritrean independence in 1993. The brief reconciliation has now been fully undone — diplomatic ties were severed last week, leaving no formal mechanism for dialogue as soldiers and drones exchange fire.
Overnight strikes on Adigrat, confirmed by conflict monitors at Acled, hit Eritrean troops and ammunition in multiple waves. Residents described intense bombardment, and witnesses reported that some Eritrean military vehicles were destroyed and forces appeared to be pulling back northward. No verified casualty figures have emerged. Meanwhile, the TPLF's recent withdrawal from Mekelle — Tigray's largest city, now under federal control — and its new alliance with other armed opposition groups suggest the conflict may be widening beyond any single front. Both nations now appeal to the world as victims, while the risk of a broader regional war has become immediate rather than hypothetical.
Convoys of Eritrean soldiers have rolled across the border into Ethiopia's Tigray region, and the Ethiopian government has responded with drone strikes. The escalation marks a dramatic rupture between two neighbors whose relationship has deteriorated so sharply that they severed diplomatic ties just days ago.
Ethiopia's foreign minister sent a letter to the UN Security Council accusing Eritrea of launching an "all-out invasion" and invoking the country's right to self-defense. He stated that Eritrean forces had penetrated as far as 60 kilometers into Tigray. The response from Asmara was swift and mirror-image: Eritrea's information minister countered that his country faced an "unprovoked war of aggression" from Ethiopia, and accused the Ethiopian government of fabricating pretexts to seize Eritrean territory, particularly one of its Red Sea ports.
The immediate trigger for this military confrontation traces back two weeks, when fighting erupted between Ethiopia's federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the political and military force that controls the Tigray region. Both sides blame each other for breaking a ceasefire agreement signed in 2022 that had ended a devastating two-year civil war. Ethiopia claims Eritrea is now backing the TPLF; Eritrea denies this. The accusation carries weight because during that earlier conflict, Eritrean forces fought alongside the Ethiopian government against the TPLF—a partnership that has now fractured entirely.
The deterioration between Addis Ababa and Asmara runs deeper than the current Tigray fighting. Relations have soured over Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's ambitions to gain control of one of Eritrea's Red Sea ports, a strategic asset that has become a flashpoint in their broader rivalry. The two countries had only normalized relations in 2018 when Abiy came to power; before that, they had been estranged since Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia in 1993. Last week's severance of diplomatic ties represents a complete reversal of that brief period of reconciliation.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Ethiopian drone strikes targeted Eritrean forces concentrated in the Tigrayan town of Adigrat. According to Acled, a US-based conflict monitoring organization, the strikes hit "Eritrean troops and ammunition" in multiple waves overnight. Residents reported intense bombardment—one told the AFP news agency there were "many, many drone strikes"—and said some Eritrean military vehicles were destroyed. Another witness indicated that Eritrean forces appeared to be pulling back northward after the strikes, though no casualty figures have been verified. The BBC has no reporters in Tigray and cannot independently confirm details on the ground.
The broader context makes this escalation particularly alarming. In September, the TPLF joined a new alliance of armed groups opposed to the Ethiopian federal government, signaling a potential widening of the conflict beyond Tigray. Last week, TPLF forces withdrew from Mekelle, Tigray's largest city, which now sits under federal army control. That city lies 115 kilometers south of Adigrat, where the drone strikes occurred.
Eritrea's information minister framed the accusations against his country in sweeping terms, calling them "duplicity in their most extreme forms." He alleged that Ethiopia was actively working to destabilize Eritrea by harboring and supporting opposition groups and "mercenaries" who oppose the Eritrean government. Ethiopia, for its part, has appealed to the UN Security Council for "understanding, support, and solidarity" as it faces what it describes as an existential threat to its sovereignty. The two nations are now locked in competing narratives of aggression and self-defense, each claiming the other initiated hostilities and violated international agreements. With Eritrean troops on Ethiopian soil and drone strikes already underway, the risk of a wider regional conflict has moved from theoretical to immediate.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
Ethiopia's foreign minister called the Eritrean military action a 'blatant act of aggression that engages Ethiopia's inherent right to self-defence'— Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos, in a letter to the UN Security Council
Eritrea's information minister responded that his country was facing 'an unprovoked war of aggression' from Ethiopia— Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel
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