Eritrea Cuts All Diplomatic Ties with Ethiopia as Horn of Africa Conflict Deepens

Eritrea announced on Thursday that it is severing all diplomatic relations with Ethiopia, a dramatic escalation that came within hours of Addis Ababa's decision to shutter its embassy in Asmara and expel ten Eritrean diplomats. The tit-for-tat moves mark the lowest point in relations between the two Horn of Africa neighbors in years and unfold against a backdrop of intensifying armed conflict inside Ethiopia.

In a statement posted on X, Eritrea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had "no option but to reciprocate in kind" after Ethiopia declared the Eritrean diplomats — including the charge d'affaires and several accredited to the African Union — persona non grata. The expelled officials were given 48 hours to leave Ethiopia, with Addis Ababa accusing them of involvement in activities that pose a direct threat to national security.

Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs framed its embassy closure as a response to what it described as Eritrea's "direct and indirect acts of hostility and belligerence." The Ethiopian government has not elaborated publicly on the specific evidence behind those allegations, but the language signals a sharp break from the diplomatic normalization that began in 2018.

Eritrea rejected the accusations outright, calling them "astounding" and countering that Ethiopia has pursued "an agenda of incessant hostility" of its own. Asmara further alleged that Addis Ababa has hosted, trained, and armed Eritrean opposition groups in an effort to foment internal unrest — a charge that adds another layer to an already volatile dispute.

At the center of the deterioration is Ethiopia's long-standing push for direct access to the Red Sea. Eritrea's foreign ministry asserted that Ethiopia had waged war against it to secure such access, reflecting Asmara's view that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's repeated public statements about sea access amount to a territorial claim. Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a decades-long armed struggle, and the loss of coastal territory has remained a sensitive issue in bilateral relations ever since.

The diplomatic rupture is directly tied to the widening conflict inside Ethiopia. Addis Ababa has accused Eritrea, Sudan, and Egypt of supporting an opposition alliance led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which has been fighting federal forces since last week. Fierce clashes have continued across the country, with explosions reported in Addis Ababa on Wednesday and Thursday and combat also flaring in the northern Afar region.

The scale of the fighting represents the most serious escalation since the end of the 2020-2022 civil war, a brutal conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Eritrea fought alongside Ethiopian government forces during that war, but the partnership unraveled quickly once the Pretoria Peace Agreement ended hostilities in November 2022. Eritrea was not a party to those talks, and relations between the two capitals have steadily worsened since.

Regional officials have added fuel to the diplomatic fire. Days after the latest clashes erupted, Haji Awol Arba, chief administrator of the Afar region, told Al Jazeera that Eritrean soldiers had crossed the border into Afar to join the opposition alliance's offensive. Eritrea has not responded directly to that allegation, but the claim underscores how quickly the conflict could draw in neighboring states.

The historical arc of Ethiopia-Eritrea relations helps explain the speed of the collapse. Ethiopia annexed Eritrea in 1962, triggering an independence struggle led by Isaias Afwerki, who has ruled Eritrea as president since independence. When Abiy came to power in 2018, he moved to end two decades of frozen conflict and normalize ties with Isaias, an opening that earned him a Nobel Peace Prize but has since largely unraveled.

Analysts caution that the severing of ties carries consequences beyond symbolism. Diplomatic channels that might once have helped contain the fighting are now closed, and the absence of embassies removes a key venue for de-escalation. The expulsions also affect Eritrean diplomats accredited to the African Union, potentially complicating continental mediation efforts just as they are most needed.

For ordinary citizens on both sides, the breakdown threatens to revive painful wartime dynamics. Cross-border trade, family ties, and humanitarian corridors that briefly flourished after 2018 could be disrupted. The conflict in northern Ethiopia has already displaced large numbers of people, and a widening war involving external actors would deepen an already severe humanitarian crisis.

The involvement of Sudan and Egypt — both of which Ethiopia has accused of backing the TPLF-led alliance — points to the broader regionalization of the conflict. Cairo and Khartoum have their own disputes with Addis Ababa, most notably over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Nile water rights, giving the confrontation a geopolitical dimension that extends well beyond the Ethiopia-Eritrea border.

Whether the tit-for-tat expulsions mark a temporary rupture or a permanent realignment remains uncertain. Much depends on the trajectory of the fighting inside Ethiopia and whether regional or international mediators can reestablish channels of communication. For now, the two governments appear to be digging in, each casting the other as the aggressor while the conflict on the ground shows no sign of abating.