Ethiopia Drones Hit Eritrean Troops Inside Tigray — SkimNews
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- Eritrean troops crossed into Ethiopia's Tigray region on Wednesday, reaching the town of Adigrat 40km south of the border, according to Acled and civilian witnesses.
- Ethiopian government drones struck those Eritrean troops on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, per conflict monitoring group Acled — a fresh escalation between the former civil war allies.
- The TPLF launched an offensive against Ethiopia's government on 23 September; the allied Tigray Peace Force militia retook Tigray's capital Mekelle on 4 October after TPLF withdrew from the city.
- Eritrea's information minister Yemane Ghebremeskel neither confirmed nor denied troops' presence, saying only: "We are not in the business of refuting wild allegations or narratives."
- Ethiopia's foreign ministry declared it "stands ready to defend its sovereignty" while citing its "enduring connection to the Red Sea" — the same access rights PM Abiy has asserted over the Eritrean port of Assab.
- Crisis Group's Magnus Taylor warned Abiy might try to "solve all his problems at the same time, by invading Eritrea, possibly a regime change move and also a land grab for the Red Sea port, and also solving his problem with Tigray at the same time."
- ACLED analyst Jalale Getachew Birru noted civilians in Tigray, Amhara, and Afar "just started healing recently" from the 2020-2022 war, which British estimates placed at 300,000 to 800,000 deaths.
Why it matters: Ethiopia's military now faces simultaneous threats: the TPLF and six other armed groups across Tigray, Amhara, and Afar — plus Eritrean troops on its northern border. Both governments are explicitly tying the fighting to a Red Sea port dispute that Crisis Group warns could draw Abiy into a multi-front campaign, meaning the November 2022 peace deal that ended a conflict British estimates put at 300,000-800,000 deaths has visibly collapsed before its wounds had healed.
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