Eritrea has severed all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia, hours after Addis Ababa ordered the closure of its embassy in Asmara and expelled 10 Eritrean diplomats, in the sharpest rupture between the Horn of Africa neighbours since they restored relations in 2018.
Key facts
- Ethiopia announced on Thursday that it is closing its embassy in Asmara, citing “direct and indirect acts of hostility and belligerence” by Eritrea.
- Addis Ababa declared 10 Eritrean diplomats persona non grata, giving them 48 hours to leave the country.
- Asmara responded by severing all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia, calling the move unwarranted.
- The rupture follows overnight blasts heard in Addis Ababa and the biggest escalation of fighting in northern Ethiopia since the 2020–2022 civil war ended.
- Ethiopia also expelled an Egyptian diplomat, Ahmed Moharam Ahmed Soliman, giving him 48 hours to leave.
Ethiopia moves first, Eritrea reciprocates
Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it had “decided to close its Embassy in Asmara, Eritrea, in response to Eritrea’s direct and indirect acts of hostility and belligerence against Ethiopia”.
The ministry said in a statement posted on X that 10 Eritrean diplomats, whom it did not name, were required to leave Ethiopia within 48 hours, accusing them of posing “a direct threat to Ethiopia’s national security”. No details of the alleged activities were provided.
Eritrea rejected the accusations hours later. Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel told Reuters that by expelling all Eritrean diplomats, Ethiopia was effectively closing Asmara’s embassy in Addis Ababa.
“Eritrea has no option but to reciprocate in kind and sever all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia with all the negative corollaries that this entails,” Eritrea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Eritrea instead accused Ethiopia of pursuing “an agenda of incessant hostility” over the past three years — which it described as amounting to a “publicly pronounced declaration of war” driven by Addis Ababa’s ambition to secure sovereign access to the sea. Eritrea also accused Ethiopia of hosting, training and arming Eritrean opposition groups.
Addis Ababa’s skyline at dusk. Blasts were heard overnight in the Ethiopian capital, deepening fears of a renewed conflict. (Illustrative image)
Blasts in Addis Ababa and fighting in the north
The diplomatic break came after overnight blasts heard in Addis Ababa sparked fears about renewed conflict in northern Ethiopia spreading to the capital.
Addis Ababa has accused Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt of supporting an opposition alliance led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that has battled troops loyal to Ethiopia’s federal government since last week. All three countries deny the accusation.
The clashes mark the biggest escalation of fighting in Ethiopia since the end of the 2020–2022 civil war, in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Eritrea fought in support of Ethiopia’s federal government in that conflict — a wartime alliance that has now fully collapsed into mutual accusations.
An Egyptian diplomat expelled too
In a separate move, Ethiopia declared an Egyptian diplomat, Ahmed Moharam Ahmed Soliman, persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country within 48 hours, according to the state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation and two sources cited by Reuters. The notification gave no reason for the move.
Relations between Ethiopia and Egypt are already strained over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, and analysts say the expulsions signal Addis Ababa’s widening confrontation with multiple neighbours at once.
Diplomatic channels between the two countries have now been cut completely. (Illustrative image)
Why this matters
The two neighbours only restored diplomatic relations in 2018, after severing ties during the full-scale 1998–2000 war and 18 years of strained relations that followed. Thursday’s mutual closure of embassies undoes nearly a decade of normalisation in a single day.
The rupture comes at a particularly dangerous moment, with fighting intensifying across northern Ethiopia and tensions between Asmara and Addis Ababa rising rapidly. Diplomats and analysts fear a slide toward a new regional conflict that could drag in Sudan and Egypt.
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Read the original reporting: Reuters: Eritrea severs diplomatic ties with Ethiopia.
Conclusion
Within 24 hours, Ethiopia and Eritrea went from a strained but functioning diplomatic relationship to a complete severance of ties — the most serious rupture in eight years. With fighting escalating in northern Ethiopia, blasts rattling Addis Ababa, and both governments accusing each other of backing armed opponents, the region now faces its most dangerous moment since the end of the Tigray war.
