Ethiopia announces it will close its embassy in Asmara, declares 10 Eritrean diplomats persona non grata.
Eritrea says it is severing diplomatic ties with its Ethiopian neighbor in response to the expulsion of diplomats from Addis Ababa, as fighting between Ethiopian federal forces and a coalition of armed opposition groups intensifies.
“Eritrea has no choice but to reciprocate and sever all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia with all the negative corollaries that this entails,” its foreign ministry said in a statement published on X on Thursday.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
The move came shortly after Ethiopia announced it would close its embassy in Asmara “in response to Eritrea’s direct and indirect acts of hostility and belligerence against Ethiopia.”
The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry also declared 10 Eritrean diplomats in Addis Ababa, including the charge d’affaires and other individuals accredited to the African Union, “persona non grata for involvement in activities that pose a direct threat to the national security of Ethiopia”, asking them to leave the country within 48 hours.
In its statement, the Eritrean ministry said claims of its involvement in hostile activities were “staggering.”
“In reality, it is Ethiopia that is pursuing a program of relentless hostility,” he says, adding that Addis Ababa has waged a war against Eritrea for access to the Red Sea.
He also accused Ethiopia of harboring, training and arming Eritrean opposition groups to fuel internal conflict.
Addis Ababa in turn accused Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt of supporting an opposition alliance led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) which has been fighting since last week against troops loyal to the Ethiopian federal government.
The Ethiopian government also declared an Egyptian diplomat persona non grata on Thursday and ordered him to leave the country within 48 hours, according to Ethiopian Public Broadcasting.
Egypt responded in kind by declaring an Ethiopian embassy counselor in Egypt persona non grata and giving him 48 hours to leave, state-affiliated Al Qahera News reported, citing an Egyptian official.
Violent clashes continue between Ethiopian federal forces and armed opposition groups. On Wednesday and Thursday, explosions were heard in Addis Ababa, while fighters also clashed with government forces in the northern Afar region.
In a statement Thursday, U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar, Jim McGovern and John Garamendi expressed concern over the escalating fighting and called on all parties in Ethiopia to “immediately reengage in peace negotiations.”
“This escalation of conflict threatens the entire country and the region as a whole, which is already reeling from the previous war in northern Ethiopia and the devastating conflict in Sudan. Ordinary civilians are bearing the brunt of this violence,” the statement said.
Days after the latest clashes began last week, the chief administrator of the Afar region, Haji Awol Arba, told Al Jazeera that Eritrean soldiers had entered Afar to join the alliance’s offensive.
The fighting marks the biggest escalation since the end of a 2020-2022 civil war. Eritrea fought alongside the Ethiopian government during the Tigray War, but relations between the neighbors have since deteriorated.
Eritrea was not a party to the Pretoria peace agreement that ended fighting in November 2022, and relations between the two nations quickly deteriorated.
Ties between neighbors have historically been fragile. In 1962, Ethiopia annexed Eritrea. An armed struggle for independence, led by current Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, achieved independence in 1993.
When Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, he took steps to end tensions and normalize diplomatic relations with President Isaias. But Abiy’s ambitions to seek direct access to the sea for landlocked Ethiopia have contributed to tensions.
In recent years, Abiy has repeated that Ethiopia has the right to access the sea, comments that officials in Asmara view as a declaration of territorial conflict with Eritrea.
Gn world
