Eritrea is accused by Ethiopia of arming rebels in a verbal battle that is getting more intense

Ethiopian police claimed to have found thousands of rounds of ammunition that Eritrea had given to rebels in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. Eritrea denied this claim, calling it a lie meant to incite conflict.

The accusation by Ethiopia’s federal police intensifies a conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, longtime adversaries who signed a peace agreement in 2018 but have subsequently exchanged new threats and hostility.

In the Amhara area, where Fano rebels have been waging an insurgency since 2023, police said in a statement late on Wednesday that they had detained two people and confiscated 56,000 rounds of ammunition this week.

“The preliminary investigation conducted on the two suspects who were caught red-handed has confirmed that the ammunition was sent by the Shabiya government,” the statement stated, referring to the ruling party in Eritrea.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party (PP) was searching for an excuse to launch an attack, Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel said Reuters.

“The PP regime is floating false flags to justify the war that it has been itching to unleash for two long years,” he stated.

Isaias Afwerki, the president of Eritrea, claimed earlier this week that the Prosperity Party had declared war on his nation in an interview with state-run media. Eritrea does not seek conflict, he continued, but “We know how to defend our nation.”

Five years after Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia, in 1998, the two nations began a three-year border conflict.

Ethiopia’s Abiy received the Nobel Peace Prize the following year after they made a historic agreement to restore relations in 2018. Then, during a civil war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray area in 2020–2022, Eritrean troops fought alongside Ethiopia’s army.

However, after Asmara was excluded from the peace agreement that put an end to that fighting, ties deteriorated. Since then, Abiy’s frequent public statements that landlocked Ethiopia has a right to sea access have infuriated Eritrea, as many in the Red Sea nation perceive them as an implied threat of military action.

According to Abiy, Ethiopia wants to resolve the problem of sea access through discussion and does not seek conflict with Eritrea.