Ethiopia has accused neighbouring Eritrea of working with a hardline faction of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in an alleged plot to launch a new war against Addis Ababa. The claim was detailed in a letter from Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, obtained by AFP on Wednesday.
“The collusion between the Eritrean government and the TPLF has become increasingly clear over the past few months… The hardline faction of the TPLF and the Eritrean government are actively preparing to wage war against Ethiopia,” the Ethiopian foreign minister stated in the letter.
The TPLF, which dominated Ethiopia’s political landscape for nearly three decades before being sidelined by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration, was banned from political activity after a brutal two-year civil war in northern Ethiopia that ended with a peace deal in November 2022.
Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea — once allies in the fight against the TPLF — have deteriorated sharply in recent months, fuelling concerns of renewed instability in the Horn of Africa, a region already grappling with conflict, drought, and humanitarian crises.
