According to a report from Reuters, the US believes Eritrean soldiers have entered the war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military operation against the Tigray People’s Liberation Force (TPLF) on November 4th. The TPLF has a history of fighting Eritrean forces on Ethiopia’s northern border.
When Abiy came into office in 2018, his reforms gave the TPLF much less power in the government. Abiy also signed a peace deal with Eritrea, ending a decades-old border dispute.
Since Eritrea and Abiy both see the TPLF as an enemy, Eritrea has been suspected of helping Abiy in his Tigray operation. The TPLF made the accusation early on and even fired missiles at Eritrea’s capital in retaliation. Since phone and internet service has been cut in Tigray, reports are near impossible to confirm, but both US and UN officials claim Eritrean soldiers are in Tigray.
A US source and five regional diplomats told Reuters that the US assessed Eritrea was involved. Sources told Bloomberg that UN security teams evaluating the situation observed troops wearing Eritrean uniforms in Tigray. For their part, Eritrea has denied the claim, calling it “propaganda.” Abiy also denied the presence of Eritrean soldiers and accused the TPLF of making fake uniforms.
When the fighting first started in November, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a statement where he appeared to take Abiy’s side.
On November 28th, Abiy claimed the government seized Tigray’s capital Mekelle and declared victory in the campaign. But the TPLF denied Abiy’s claim and said the war was far from over. It is estimated that thousands have been killed in the conflict so far, and at least 49,000 refugees fled to Sudan.
Eritrea was the original Italian colony. It was taken in 1887, and by 1888 the Italian administration launched its first development projects in the new colony.
That was not expanded into a larger colony including Ethiopia until Mussolini attacked Ethiopia in 1935, not taking it until 1937. That means Eritrea was developed by Italy for half a century, exactly 50 years before they controlled Ethiopia. Then Italy held onto Ethiopia for only 4 years, the British re-taking it in 1941.
Thus, today’s Ethiopia is the un-colonized part, and today’s Eritrea is the European colony part.
55% of the population of Eritrea is Tigray, according to the CIA’s publication. The Tigray province of Ethiopia has natural ethnic ties to the old colony, but not colonial history shared with it.
Thanks. I was picked up by an Eritrean cab driven a few years ago at the major Houston airport. Nice guy. Didn’t care much for the fighting over there. He seemed to like Texas.
Thanks so much for this history. It is both fascinating and sad to learn about so many distinct cultures of people and how ethnic groups were divided by seemingly nonsensical borders.
The Tigray situation sounds a lot like the Kurdish situation. European style borders really f**ked up tribal societies across the globe.