Revealed On 29 Sep 2026
As renewed preventing spreads throughout northern Ethiopia, the government has accused Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt of backing armed opposition teams, elevating fears that the battle might attract regional powers.
Over the weekend, Ethiopian military chief Birhanu Jula attributed his nation’s unrest to these he known as Ethiopia’s “historic and modern adversaries”.
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Birhanu accused Eritrea of being the go-between linking these exterior powers – together with Sudan and Egypt, which he explicitly named – with armed teams inside Ethiopia.
Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt have all rejected the accusations. Talking to Al Jazeera, Egyptian Overseas Ministry spokesperson Nader Zaki mentioned that Egypt’s overseas coverage was based on “full respect for the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of states, and noninterference within the inner affairs of different international locations”.
Zaki added that Egypt “is totally dedicated to the principles of worldwide legislation and the Constitution of the United Nations, and rejects any practices that will undermine regional safety and stability”.
Main-Basic Samir Farag, the previous head of the Egyptian Armed Forces’ Morale Affairs Division, additionally informed Al Jazeera that the accusations towards Egypt had been false. “It has not been Egypt’s coverage to intervene within the inner affairs of any state within the area,” he mentioned.
Sudan’s navy additionally dismissed the accusations as “baseless” and levelled its personal cost of destabilising behaviour at Ethiopia, accusing it of supporting the paramilitary Fast Help Forces (RSF), which has been preventing the Sudanese Armed Forces since 2023. Ethiopia has denied these allegations.
Troubled relations
Ethiopia’s relations with the international locations it has accused have already been strained by different disputes that predate the most recent preventing.
Relations between Cairo and Addis Ababa have remained tense as a longstanding dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) stays unresolved. Competitors between the 2 has more and more prolonged to regional safety, the Crimson Sea and the Horn of Africa.
Sudan’s relations with Ethiopia are equally troubled. For the reason that outbreak of the Sudanese civil struggle, Khartoum has accused Addis Ababa of offering coaching, provides and the usage of Ethiopian territory to the RSF.
Eritrea had fought alongside Ethiopia towards insurgent teams within the latter’s Tigray area throughout a struggle between 2020 and 2022, however relations between the 2 neighbours have since soured, with Eritrea alarmed by Ethiopia’s makes an attempt to realize entry to the Crimson Sea.
In opposition to that background, some analysts and Ethiopian opposition figures say that Addis Ababa is pointing the finger at overseas conspiracies in a bid to rally help behind its nationwide military.
Mohamed Selim, deputy chair of the Egyptian parliament’s African Affairs Committee, informed Al Jazeera that he believes the accusations had been an try and shift consideration from Ethiopia’s home issues by creating an exterior enemy and in search of to unify the interior entrance.
Amani al-Tawil, director of the Africa Programme on the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Research, equally described the accusations as “an comprehensible try to flee from inner crises”.
She questioned why Egypt would select this second to intervene militarily in Ethiopia, given the 2 have been in dispute over GERD since 2011.
Al-Tawil mentioned the breadth of the new opposition alliance in Ethiopia – seven teams representing disparate ethnic teams and areas introduced the coalition final week – offered a problem to Addis Ababa.
Spillover issues
The renewed preventing in Ethiopia has unfold throughout Tigray and into neighbouring Amhara and Afar.
Mohammed Hussein, the chairman of the Prosperity Occasion Afar Area Department Workplace – the ruling celebration in Ethiopia’s Afar area – informed Al Jazeera that the three areas collectively have a inhabitants of greater than 38 million, in line with his estimate, and embody areas close to the borders with Djibouti and Eritrea, elevating fears of a regional struggle.
Ammar Arki, a author specializing in Horn of Africa affairs, informed Al Jazeera that Ethiopia had, at varied phases, blamed Sudan, Egypt and Eritrea for contributing to instability inside Ethiopia.
He mentioned the most recent accusations might be interpreted as an try and redirect some home consideration in the direction of an exterior risk and construct help across the federal authorities.
However Arki warned that the longer Addis Ababa continued to clarify its inner disaster by way of an “exterior conspiracy”, significantly if neighbouring states responded in the identical manner, the larger the chance that Ethiopia’s battle might transfer past Ethiopia’s borders and change into regional.
