Photographer: Getty Images by Eduardo Soteras / AFP
Photographer: Getty Images by Eduardo Soteras / AFP
As UN security teams assess the situation in Ethiopia’s Tigris region, people familiar with the matter say they have seen soldiers in Eritrean uniforms roaming the area.
He oversees claims made by Tigrian leaders during clashes between Ethiopian government forces and Tigrian fighters last month. The presence of Eritrean troops indicates the conflict, which the Ethiopian government has described as a local issue, has been regional.
Read: Why the simmering tensions in Ethiopia have boiled over: QuickTech
UN teams last week spotted soldiers dressed in Eritrean military uniforms in the western Tigris as they headed toward the city of Shire, with one of the people saying they would not identify because they did not have the right to speak to the media. Another said soldiers wearing Eritrean uniforms were found in Tigrayan’s capital, Mackay, and west of the city, although observers could not fully verify their findings.
A third person said regional security sources also reported Eritrean troops on routes from the Eritrean border to Adva and the northern Tigre towns of Adrigat.
‘False claims’
A spokesman for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiya Ahmed, Bilan Siyum, did not respond to a request for comment by email. At the outset of the conflict, Abi accused the Tigre People’s Liberation Front of producing uniforms similar to those of the Eritrean army, saying that “the Eritrean government could be trapped in false claims of aggression against the people of Tigre.”
The Eritrean government has not commented on whether its troops are involved in the conflict, and Eritrean Information Minister Yemen did not respond to questions emailed by Gabremescale. Katherine Sozi, the UN resident coordinator in Ethiopia, said she could not immediately comment as she was unaware of the security-team’s reports.
A foreign diplomat and humanitarian aid official said Eritrean troops were suspected of entering Ethiopia. Tigre kidnaps refugees in four camps suspected of being anti-Eritrean government activists. Last month, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told reporters in Sudan that such treatment of refugees would constitute a “major violation of international norms”.
Maron Estafanos, director of the Eritrean Initiative on Refugee Rights, said they spoke on the phone with at least one refugee who said they had been taken across the border by Eritrean troops to an Eritrean hospital and were not allowed to return to Tigre.
‘Counter story’
Abi emphasizes that the conflict in Tigre is “Internal relationship, “And described the invasion of Tigre as a” law enforcement operation. “
Any Eritrean involvement “would be the complete opposite of what the Abyssinian government has sought to build around this conflict: it is limited in scope, it is just law-enforcement and it is entirely domestic,” said Cameron Hudson the senior. Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.
Until last month’s invasion, the TPLF, the ruling party in Tigre, has repeatedly accused Eritrean forces of crossing the border and aiding Ethiopian federal forces. On at least two occasions since the conflict began, Tigrian forces have fired ballistic missiles at Eritrea.
Eritrean President Isaac Afwerki has been at loggerheads with the TPLF since 1998, when a dispute over territory sparked a two-year war with Ethiopia. The fighting killed thousands and did not officially end until two years ago, when Abi signed a peace treaty with Isaiah – the act for which Abi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Prior to that conflict, Eritrean and Tigrian forces fought together to overthrow the Marxist Darg regime that ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987.
In addition to sharing a border, Tigre and Eritrea share a common language and culture. The Eritrean government opposes the idea, as more and more Tigrinya-speaking nations have been called upon by the Tigris in the past.
– Assisted by Paul Richardson
(Updates with region maps)
.
