October 10, 2025

Drama explodes in the Horn of Africa! Ethiopia has charged its neighbor Eritrea with preparing to launch a war. But Eritrea slapped back hard, calling the accusation “provocative sabre-rattling.” The tensions between the two countries have been simmering for months. Over 30 years ago, Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia after a long, tough fight. But peace has been shaky. Earlier this month, Ethiopia’s foreign ministry sent a serious letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. It said Eritrea is teaming up with a tough group from Ethiopia’s opposition, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), to “wage war.” The letter claimed they have been “funding, mobilising and directing armed groups” in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, where fighting has been ongoing for years. Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Ghebremeskel fired back, condemning the letter as a “deceitful charade.” He said the accusations are just intense propaganda to stir unrest and called the Ethiopian claims provocative sabre-rattling. The TPLF also denied the charges in a letter to the UN received by AFP. They called Ethiopia's accusations “entirely unfounded” and warned that the Ethiopian government seems to be preparing for another war. They described the Ethiopian claims as a “dangerous inversion of reality” and accused the government of portraying the aggressor as the victim. History fans remember the bitter border war from 1998 to 2000 between Ethiopia and Eritrea which left tens of thousands dead. Then peace blossomed in 2018 when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed signed a historic peace deal with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, earning Abiy the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. But the peace cracked when Eritrean troops joined Ethiopian federal forces in the 2020-2022 Tigray war, a brutal conflict that left an estimated 600,000 dead. Recently, relations worsened again with Eritrea accusing Ethiopia of wanting its vital Assab port on the Red Sea. Ethiopia lost legal sea access after Eritrea’s independence, and Prime Minister Abiy has often spoken of wanting the coastline back. Ghebremeskel accused Ethiopia of scheming to undermine Eritrea’s “hard-won independence and its sovereignty” and said, “For the last two years, the regime's policy mantra has revolved on acquiring sovereign access to the sea through legal means if possible, or military force if necessary.” In June, a US report said Eritrea was rebuilding its army and stirring trouble in the region, but Eritrea blamed the rising tensions on Ethiopia instead. Will the Horn of Africa see peace or more fire? The world watches closely as old rivals clash once more, with history, power, and pride on the line.

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Tags: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tplf, Horn of africa, Abiy ahmed, Conflict,