Ethiopia’s federal police claimed they intercepted thousands of rounds of ammunition sent from Eritrea intended for rebels occupying Ethiopia’s Amhara region. Eritrea responded saying Ethiopia’s claim was solely lies used to give reason for war.
The official statement from Ethiopian police late on Wednesday said they had seized 56,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as containing two suspects in the Amhara region, where Fano rebels (rebels against Ethiopian Gov.) have been revolting since 2023. The police confirmed through investigation that the suspects caught with ammunition originated from the Shabiya government. Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel made a statement that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party (PP) was looking for a reason to support an attack.
The two countries established a peace deal in 2018. Since then, the relationship between the countries has become broken and hostile. This dispute has gone on since the establishment of Eritrea’s sovereignty. Violence began during the three-year border war that occurred in 1998, five years after Eritrea won its independence from Ethiopia. Following the peace deal, tensions eased, but as of recently issues have begun to arise, and the relation between the two countries have become rocky.
This event seems to be the beginning of a conflict between the two countries. This could be bad because both countries exist in an already unstable region. Any conflict would be bad for the region adding to tension already present in the region and stress both countries making unstable conditions for citizens.
Countries could resume peaceful negotiations and make a peace deal to prevent any potential conflict. This could prevent a war, which seems to be in the beginning stages following this threat to Ethiopia.
This connects to national security. Ethiopia is seeing Eritrea as a security threat. This threat is elevating to protective actions which could escalate to violence initiated by either country.