Ethiopia tells UN Security Council it has no option but self-defense against Eritrea, as federal forces are reported in Idaga Hamus

A soldier lifts the wing of a drone marked S-389 beside stacked ammunition boxes, in an image posted on X by AfriMEOSINT on October 9, 2026, which said it shows a YIHA-III loitering munition that ENDF troops captured from Tigrayan forces. Mereja could not independently verify where or when it was filmed. Photo: AfriMEOSINT (@AfriMEOSINT) on X

Ethiopia has told UN Security Council members that Eritrea’s “all-out invasion” of parts of northern Ethiopia leaves it no option but self-defense, as federal and allied forces were reported entering the town of Idaga Hamus.

Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos wrote in a letter dated Thursday, October 8, that Eritrean forces had advanced up to 60 kilometers into the Tigray region, Reuters reported on Friday. The letter was addressed to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, and a senior Ethiopian official who shared it with Reuters said it was also sent to the other members of the Council. Reuters called it the government’s first official statement on the reported incursions this week.

“The all-out invasion of parts of northern Ethiopia by Eritrea is a matter of public record,” the letter said. “It is a blatant act of aggression that engages Ethiopia’s inherent right to self-defense.” It also appealed to Council members: “In this time of difficulty, when Ethiopia is left with no other option but to defend itself, we count on your understanding, support, and solidarity.”

BBC Amharic, which also reported on the letter, said Gedion wrote that Eritrea had deployed troops, including mechanized units, deep into Ethiopian territory, reaching 30 to 60 kilometers inside the country across three zones of Tigray. He wrote that any position that tries to put the two countries on an equal balance does not help peace and security in the Horn of Africa. “Eritrea is the invader, and Ethiopia is the victim of the invasion. Eritrea is violating Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he wrote, in Mereja’s translation of the Amharic report.

On the same Thursday, Gedion met UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and called for the immediate withdrawal of Eritrean forces from Ethiopian territory, Addis Standard reported. Wazema Radio said on X that he asked the UN for a “fast” and “clear” response. BBC Amharic said that, apart from the accounts of residents, images shared on social media that BBC had checked confirmed that the Eritrean army had entered Tigray, even though the gov’t of President Isaias Afwerki does not accept that it is taking part in the war.

Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not immediately respond to Reuters on Friday, and neither did Abiy Ahmed’s spokesperson. On X early Friday, Yemane wrote that Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry “is these days accusing Eritrea for acts of ‘unprovoked aggression that may jeopardize regional peace and security'” and called this “Audacity and duplicity in their most extreme forms!” He said that on September 27 the Ethiopian army’s deputy chief of staff had declared, “Mekelle is a mere stop-over, our ultimate destination is Assab; our main objective is to install our flag in the Red Sea.” He wrote that “the Ethiopian regime has been pursuing, in effect, an unprovoked war of aggression against Eritrea for more than three years now.” His post did not say whether Eritrean troops are inside Tigray. In a separate post in Tigrinya, Yemane shared a gov’t editorial that said, in Mereja’s translation, “Eritrea’s sovereign territory is bounded by blood and by law. Woe to whoever touches it!”

On the ground, Peter Mwai, an open-source and fact-checking journalist at BBC Verify, wrote on X at about 3 AM ET on Friday that he had geolocated footage showing “ENDF and TPF in Edaga Hamus / Idaga Hamus, Tigray, about 15km south of Adigrat.” The video he geolocated was posted by the account @OgadenSoldier, which describes itself as a “Horn observer” and wrote that the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) and the Tigray Peace Force (TPF) had entered the town and that “crowds gathered to cheer and applaud.” Another account, Z Medhin (@Zeate1), posted a video it said showed Idaga Hamus residents clapping for the forces as they marched toward Adigrat.

Wazema Radio reported on Thursday that federal forces had fully taken Wukro the evening before, after three days of fighting, and that Tigrayan and Eritrean forces had pulled back to Fatsi and Sinqata, about 20 kilometers from Adigrat, after repeated drone strikes. Citing its sources, Wazema said there was no fighting in Adigrat that day and that Shire was not yet fully under gov’t control, although the Tigray Peace Force had claimed it. An Adigrat resident told Reuters on Friday that they had heard repeated explosions overnight and into the morning from several kilometers outside town. On Friday, some accounts on X, such as Hannaa Abdisa (@HannaaLido), posted “We have entered Adigrat,” a claim that had not been independently verified.

Critical Threats, a project of the American Enterprise Institute, said on X on Thursday evening that it had “independently corroborated some aspects of a growing number of reports that Eritrean forces have deployed into Tigray since early October but has been unable to fully confirm the claims.” It said it had geolocated images posted online that claimed to show Eritrean forces and a destroyed Eritrean vehicle near Adigrat and Idaga Hamus. It also said it found no large Eritrean buildup near the border in satellite imagery and judged that “any recent Eritrean incursion is likely limited and may have already been abandoned.” It noted that an Ethiopian official had claimed the incursion involved three infantry divisions and one mechanized division, about 6,000 soldiers.

Rich Tedd, who runs the open-source account AfriMEOSINT, posted a video on Friday that he said shows a YIHA-III loitering munition “captured by ENDF troops from TDF/TPLF forces,” meaning the Tigray Defense Forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Earlier on Friday, he tracked three Il-76TD cargo planes flying from the United Arab Emirates toward East Africa, “likely Ethiopia.”

Lindsey Hilsum of the British broadcaster Channel 4 News replied to critics on X early Friday that “We made a mistake using the opening footage which we failed to realise was not current. The piece is being taken down.” Critics had said the report used old footage in a story about the current incursion.

Jawar Mohammed, a member of the Oromo Federalist Congress, wrote on X that he had opposed the Abiy Ahmed government’s “hostile rhetoric over access to the sea” and that “I would equally oppose any Eritrean military incursion into Ethiopia. Sovereignty cannot be defended selectively.” He asked the Eritrean gov’t to “clearly confirm or deny” whether its troops had recently crossed into Ethiopia. In another post, he wrote that “the military balance has already shifted decisively in Ethiopia’s favour.” Tom Gardner, Africa correspondent of The Economist, wrote in a reply on X that he was “unclear why the Ethiopian government invited them into Tigray” in 2020 “if any genius could have pointed out why that was a bad idea.”

The U.S. said in an October 8 update that it had received no further reports of long-range weapons use in Ethiopia since its October 7 security alert, and that fighting appeared to be concentrated north of Adigrat and north of Shire, Addis Standard reported. The same outlet reported that FEWS NET expects crisis-level food insecurity, IPC Phase 3, to persist in parts of southern and eastern Tigray, and that Ethiopian Airlines will resume Addis Ababa to Mekelle flights on Sunday.

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Ethiopia tells UN Security Council it has no option but self-defense against Eritrea, as federal forces are reported in Idaga Hamus

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