Situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray region ‘unstable’; Church leaders yet to comment

ACI Africa, Mar 17, 2025 / 14:30 pm

Tension is brewing in Ethiopia’s northernmost territory, the Tigray region, a source has told ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, confirming media reports that “experts” from the Horn of Africa nation are warning of a war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

“We have not yet received any official confirmation from Church leaders, but we have heard reports that the situation is unstable,” the source said on March 15.

As an indication of the growing tension in Tigray, the source said “flights have been cancelled.”

According to Reuters, there is “fresh instability” in Ethiopia’s northernmost region, where a two-year civil war that ended with a November 2022 peace deal resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands.

In a Reuters report on March 13, Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae, a vice president in the interim administration in the Tigray region, is quoted as telling the Africa-focused magazine The Africa Report that “at any moment, war between Ethiopia and Eritrea could break out.” 

Fears of renewed violence are linked to the split in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) — the party that fought against Ethiopia’s federal army during the two-year war and runs Tigray’s postwar interim administration.

During the war, Eritrean forces crossed the border into the Tigray region and fought in support of Ethiopia’s federal army against TPLF forces. 

According to Reuters: “The peace deal signed in November 2022 drove a wedge between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which was not party to the negotiations.”

“Fears of a new conflict are linked to the TPLF’s split last year into a faction that now administers Tigray with the blessing of Ethiopia’s federal government and another that opposes it,” Reuters’ March 13 report said. 

According to the same report, on March 11 a TPLF-dissident faction captured Adigrat, a northern Ethiopian town close to the border of Eritrea, accusing the leadership of Tigray of “selling out Tigrayan interests, while the interim administration accuses the dissidents of collaborating with Eritrea.”

The seizing of Adigrat follows the capture of “key offices and a radio station in the regional capital, Mekelle,” according to a March 14 BBC News report.

In a March 12 Reuters report, the head of Tigray’s interim administration, Getachew Reda, is quoted as asking Ethiopian government support against the dissidents, who have since denied ties to Eritrea.

“There is clear antagonism between Ethiopia and Eritrea,” Reda is quoted as telling journalists on March 10, adding that “what concerns me is that the Tigray people may once again become victims of a war they don’t believe in.”

“We have reason to believe external actors are involved,” Reda said, adding his accusation that Eritrea was among those who think “they would benefit from turmoil in Tigray.”

In its March 14 report, Reuters warned that “a conflict would signal the death blow to a historic rapprochement for which Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and risk creating another humanitarian disaster in the troubled Horn of Africa region.”

Renewed violence in Ethiopia’s Tigray region would “likely create another crisis in a region where aid cuts have complicated efforts to assist millions affected by internal conflicts in Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia,” according to the March 13 Reuters report. 

On March 16, Modern Diplomacy reported that “a war between Ethiopia and Eritrea would ignite a regional firestorm, further destabilizing an already volatile landscape” considering the civil wars in Sudan and South Sudan.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.