Ethiopia and Eritrea threatened by ‘bloody conflict’

Reports emerged last week that one of the leaders of the Tigray’s rebel forces had fled the country, with Ethiopian government forces mobilising in apparent preparation for war.

A Catholic bishop has warned of a “bloody confrontation” between Ethiopia and Eritrea as tensions escalate between them.

The two countries have a long history of violent conflict rooted in Eritrea’s fight for independence from Ethiopia, which it won in 1991, with a referendum confirming this in law in 1993. Hostilities resumed in recent years after rebels in parts of Eritrea fought their own secessionist campaigns.

Early this month, a senior government official in Eritria’s Tigray region, where rebels have claimed independence, warned that a war was looming between Ethiopia and Eritrea amid reports the Ethiopian government supports a faction of the Tigray separatists.

“Instability in our region continues to persist, tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea are increasing and the country could be engulfed in a very bloody conflict,” said Bishop Tesfaselassie Medhin of Adigrat, in Ethiopia’s north.

“God forbid that the factions involved start a new war in Tigray which has already suffered enormously,” Medhin said in remarks last week reported by Agenzia Fides.

The conflict in the Horn of Africa officially ended in 2022, after claiming the lives of more than half a million people according to some estimates.

Reports emerged last week that one of the leaders of the Tigray’s rebel forces had been ousted and fled the country, with Ethiopian government forces mobilising at the border with Eritrea in apparent preparation for war.

“Internal politics in Tigray are not good. The division between local politicians and the sudden interruption of USAID funding are severely penalising the people,” Bishop Medhin said.

Last year, humanitarian agencies reported that food aid was being weaponised by warring factions, leaving millions on the brink of starvation.

“The impact on programmes for the poor being run by NGOs, religious organisations and government agencies is devastating and there is no existing strategy. Even the Catholic Relief Services … has seen its activities suspended,” Medhin said. 

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