ETHIOPIA CLOSES EMBASSY IN ERITREA, EXPELS 10 ERITREAN DIPLOMATS

Thu 01 October 2026:

Ethiopia on Thursday announced the closure of its embassy in Eritrea and declared 10 Eritrean diplomats in Addis Ababa persona non grata.

In a statement, Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry said it has decided to close its embassy in Asmara in response to Eritrea’s “direct and indirect acts of hostility and belligerence” against Ethiopia.

According to the statement, 10 Eritrean diplomats had been involved in activities that posed a direct threat to Ethiopia’s national security, in breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

The diplomats were ordered to leave Ethiopia within 48 hours.

The ministry called on the Eritrean government to cease what it described as acts contrary to the principles governing relations between sovereign states.

“Ethiopia values its strong historical, cultural and people-to-people ties with Eritrea and remains committed to peaceful coexistence, regional stability and integration,” the statement said.

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Ethiopia and Eritrea’s 2026 feud is a rapid reversal of their 2018 peace deal, driven by sea access and a flipped alliance in Ethiopia’s north.

Eritrea broke from Ethiopia in 1993 after a long independence war. A border war followed in 1998–2000. In 2018 Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Isaias Afwerki normalized ties. Eritrean troops then fought alongside Ethiopia against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front in the 2020–2022 war. The 2022 Pretoria peace deal ended that fighting but left Eritrea out. Asmara resented the settlement; Addis Ababa began pressing for reliable Red Sea access, especially the Eritrean port of Assab. Eritrea treats the coast as non-negotiable independence, and fears Ethiopia will take it by force.

By 2026 the alignment had inverted. Ethiopia accused Eritrea of backing an anti-Abiy coalition—TPLF factions, Amhara Fano militias, and others—sometimes called the Tsimdo alliance. Eritrea denied it. In late September Tigrayan forces and allies launched a multi-front offensive, seizing airports and fighting in Tigray, Afar, and Amhara, shattering Pretoria.

Ethiopian officials charged Eritrea with financing the groups and, according to Afar’s governor, sending troops to cut the vital road to Djibouti, which handles most of Ethiopia’s trade. On 1 October Ethiopia closed its embassy in Asmara and expelled ten Eritrean diplomats, citing hostility.

The risk is that Ethiopia’s internal war becomes an interstate clash on the Red Sea, overlapping with Sudan’s war and wider regional tensions.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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