On Thursday the Ethiopian Government closed its embassy in Asmara and ordered 10 Eritrean diplomats in Addis Ababa to leave within 48 hours. The Foreign Ministry said the step answered what it called Eritrea’s direct and indirect hostility. It said the diplomats, whom it did not name, had taken part in activity that threatened Ethiopia’s security. Eritrea then said it was cutting all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia and warned of negative consequences. BBC Tigrinya reported that the mission in Addis is led by Biniam Berhe and also represents Eritrea at the African Union.
The photograph shows the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary in Asmara. It is not the embassy closure and it is not the expulsions.
The same day, Ethiopia ordered one Egyptian diplomat out within 48 hours. Egypt ordered one Ethiopian diplomat out on the same deadline. The African Union Commission said it was following the tension among Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Egypt with concern. It asked the three governments to show restraint and to use diplomatic channels.
The Ethiopian Government accuses Eritrea of backing the forces fighting the federal army. Eritrea’s information minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, told BBC Tigrinya that the Prosperity Party blames its neighbors to draw attention away from conflicts inside Ethiopia. A commander of a pro-government force in Tigray told the BBC that Eritrean soldiers were on the front. The Afar regional government has said the same. The federal government itself has not said that in public. Debretsion Gebremichael, in a video published Thursday, called the war regional and a war to control the Red Sea.
Relations were restored in 2018. Eritrea fought alongside the Ethiopian Government against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front in the last war, then was left out of the Pretoria agreement. Since then Abiy Ahmed has said Ethiopia needs its own port, and he has spoken of Assab, about 60 kilometers from the border. Xinhua reported that the fighting that restarted on September 23 was the immediate cause of this rupture. It also reported that Egypt and Eritrea have moved closer on the Red Sea, while Egypt remains at odds with Ethiopia over the dam on the Nile. Xinhua noted that if the crisis deepens, Eritrea or Egypt could close its airspace to Ethiopian Airlines.
The 48-hour clocks run out on Saturday. The embassy is shut, the diplomats have been told to go, and neither capital has said what it will do when the deadline passes.
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