In a speech in front of the Ethiopian parliament in 2021, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed praised the state of Eritrea and the Eritrean army. He said Eritrea was there for Ethiopia when everybody abandoned Ethiopia when the ENDF was attacked by the TPLF in November 2020. The Prime Minister said that Ethiopia will not forget what Eritrea has done for Ethiopia. He also mentioned that Ethiopia will be forever indebted for this compassion shown by Eritrea.
In November 2020, fighters loyal to the TPLF launched an attack on several bases of the Ethiopian army in Tigray. The Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front TPLF looted the bases of the Ethiopian Army, chased out the ENDF soldiers from Tigray, and took over their weaponry. After that raid, members of the ENDF command in Tigray fled to Eritrea, where they were warmly welcomed, and their wounded soldiers were hospitalized.
Eritrea’s army also assisted the Ethiopian army against the TPLF. Since TPLF allegedly controlled 80% of the weaponry of the Ethiopian army, which they had stockpiled in Tigray since the TPLF-led EPRDF government came to power, the ENDF, led by Abiy, was not able to defeat the TPLF alone.
In April 2021, the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs congratulated the people of Eritrea and the state of Eritrea for the help Eritrea provided to Ethiopia.
However, in October 2023, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed delivered a speech on the Red Sea claiming Eritrea’s Assab port, calling for a land swap, confederation, and threatening war on Eritrea over the Red Sea. In 2024, Ethiopia allowed anti-Eritrean government groups like Brigade Nhamedu and RSADO to hold conferences in Eritrea.
Brigade Nhamedu called for violent regime change in Eritrea during their conference in Addis Ababa. Additionally, last week, the armed Eritrean Afar opposition group, RSADO, called for a relaunch of its armed struggle against the state of Eritrea under the leadership of Afwerki. Despite the 2018 peace agreemet, RSADO has been hosted by Ethiopia and never left their camp in the Afar region of Ethiopia.
These actions are violations of the 2018 Ethiopian-Eritrean peace agreement, which called for ending the hosting and arming of opposition groups and respecting each other’s territorial integrity. Ethiopia also violated the peace agreement it signed with Somalia in 2018 due to Ethiopia’s illegal MOU with Somaliland.
Ethiopia is encouraged to reach out to Asmara, apologize, seek peace, and uphold its commitment to the 2018 Eritrean-Ethiopian peace agreement.