![1988 U.S. Defense Mapping Agency chart of Assab and its hinterland, labeling Debaysima inland of the port (Wikimedia Commons) [file photo]](https://i0.wp.com/mereja.com/index/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/assab-map-1988-dma.jpg?resize=780%2C702&ssl=1)
A 1988 U.S. Defense Mapping Agency chart of Assab and its hinterland, which labels Debaysima inland of the port (Defense Mapping Agency, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) [file photo]
Deutsche Welle has found that social media claims saying Ethiopian troops crossed into Eritrea and captured Debay Sima are false, Natna News reported on Tuesday.
The posts said Ethiopian forces had moved beyond the town of Bure and taken Debay Sima. Citing eyewitnesses, DW confirmed that Ethiopian troops have not moved beyond Elidar and Bure into Eritrean territory. Natna News said the check comes at a time when officials and outlets are presenting border movements that are not in fact happening. Bure and Elidar sit on the Ethiopian side of the frontier in Afar. Debay Sima, also spelled Deba-Sima, is a village in Eritrea’s Southern Denkalya subregion, about 50 kilometers from Assab.
The claim was first reported by UMD Media, which cited a source close to the federal government and said it could not verify the advance. On Monday, UMD Media said local sources in Afar’s Elidar district had dismissed the report. The Europe External Programme with Africa’s October 12 situation report described Bure as an active combat zone and also cited unverified reports of a crossing. Neither government has commented on the Debay Sima claim.
The fact-check lands amid a flood of unverified Assab and invasion narratives on X. Amaniel H Haile, posting as merzionline, shared a video commentary on Tuesday arguing that crossing into Eritrea would not be safe and framing the northern offensive around land and Red Sea questions. Gudisa GB posted a quote attributing to an ENDF member the claim that Assab is the right place for Ethiopia to stand and look at the modern world. Eriarmy_eripost asked whether the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had made a secret agreement with the Ethiopian government to allow the ENDF to take over border areas with Eritrea, saying Ethiopian troops had captured many Tigray towns while the TPLF offered little resistance. Other accounts recycled Assab historical claims and warnings about asset seizures if Assab were taken illegally. Those posts are unverified social claims, not confirmed battlefield reporting.
The same border anxiety appears in formal diplomacy. In its October 10 letter to the UN Security Council (S/2026/798), Eritrea cited a September 27 statement by Ethiopia’s Deputy Chief of Staff, General Abebaw Tadesse, that Mekelle was a stop-over toward invading Eritrea, and it asked for Chapter VII measures. Ethiopia’s October 9 letter (S/2026/797) accused Eritrea of deploying forces into Ethiopian territory and invoked Article 51 self-defence. Mereja has not independently verified the Abebaw statement as quoted by Asmara. Eritrea severed diplomatic ties with Ethiopia on October 1 after Ethiopia expelled Eritrean diplomats and closed its embassy in Asmara. On Tuesday, Eritrea’s state newspaper Haddas Ertra said in a statement, also posted by the Ministry of Information, that Ethiopia’s ruling Prosperity Party had used its letter to the Security Council to formalize a war it declared on the people of Eritrea three years ago, and that wars are started by those who do not know war, Natna News reported. Separately, Reuters reported on Tuesday that Ethiopian government troops had reached Zalambessa, a town on the Ethiopian side of the border with Eritrea, according to six sources, and that Asmara has denied any incursion into Ethiopia. The DW finding that Ethiopian troops remain on the Ethiopian side of the line at Elidar and Bure does not settle the wider dispute over intent, troop presence inside Ethiopia, or Red Sea politics. It does undercut a specific claim that Debay Sima has already fallen to an Ethiopian advance inside Eritrea.
Martin Plaut posted Crisis Group analysis on Tuesday warning that Ethiopia and Eritrea stand perilously close to all-out war as fighting inches toward their shared border. Getachew Temare wrote that Eritrea’s latest intervention in Ethiopia may prove a consequential strategic miscalculation if Asmara treated Tigray as strategic depth. Rich Tedd of AfriMEOSINT continues to post satellite work on drone damage inside Tigray near the Eritrean frontier, including what he said was a drone strike on Egela High School in Gerhu Sirnay.
Sources:
- Natna News summary of DW fact-check
- Natna News on the Haddas Ertra statement
- Eritrea Ministry of Information (Tigrinya)
- Reuters via The Straits Times on Zalambessa
- Security Council Report on Ethiopia and Eritrea UN letters
- merzionline on X
- Gudisa GB on X
- Eriarmy_eripost on X
- Martin Plaut on X
- Getachew Temare on X
- AfriMEOSINT on near-border drone damage inside Tigray