Eritrea today accused Ethiopia of externalizing internal Ethiopian conflict. Eritrean Ministry of Information issued a statement in this regard responding to an article on Aljazeera written by Mulatu Teshome, former President of Ethiopia.
The President’s article published by Aljazeera on Monday contains serious allegations against Eritrea. Mulatu accused Eritrea of stoking another war in Ethiopia by backing Amhara militias and disgruntled TPLF Debretsion Gebremichael group in Tigray.
The Eritrean Ministry of Information rejected the allegations levelled by the former Ethiopian President who is now working closely with the current Ethiopian government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
“The myriad problems besetting the region stem and find their fulcrum in Ethiopia; not elsewhere. And the panacea does not lie in externalizing the conflict or scapegoating Eritrea,” the Eritrean Ministry of Information alleged.
The Eritrean government accused Ethiopia of coercing neighboring countries to gain access to sea. “For reasons that are difficult to fathom, the Ethiopian Federal Government has unleashed, in the past months, an intensive and unwarranted campaign of provocation against Eritrea through its “thinly-veiled” agenda of acquiring ports and maritime land “legally if possible and militarily if necessary,” it alleged.
Eritrea was a key military ally of Ethiopian military in the two year long war against Tigray fighters, which ended in November 2022. Since then bilateral relations have been deteriorating. Eritrea was hoping to crush its arch rival TPLF through its military support for the Ethiopian federal forces. However Pretoria Deal signed by TPLF and Ethiopian federal government over 2 years ago saved TPLF.
Most recently, the two countries have been at odds over the issue of access to sea. Landlocked Ethiopia wants sustainable access to sea through Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti or Somaliland. It is exerting pressure on all neighboring countries to secure sea access. Eritrea is not interested in offering sea access to Ethiopia. In fact it opposes access to sea for Ethiopian military through other countries too.
In recent months, Ethiopian government has been actively backing anti Eritrean government opposition groups. Some of them are being organized, trained and armed on the Ethiopian soil. On the other hand, Eritrea is at the center of formation of a regional alliance with Somalia and Egypt in order to contain and corner Ethiopia.
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