Witnesses report Eritrean troops in Adigrat as Asmara denies any presence

Two residents of Adigrat told Reuters on Wednesday that they had seen two trucks carrying dozens of Eritrean soldiers drive through the northern Ethiopian town that morning. They said the men were identifiable by off-white camouflage. A third resident, not in town that day, said relatives had reported the same movement. Reuters said it could not independently verify the accounts. All three spoke on condition of anonymity, citing security.

Adigrat sits in Tigray, about 25 kilometres, or 15 miles, south of the Eritrean border. It has not been a clash site in the fighting that began on 23 September between Ethiopia's federal government and a rebel alliance active in Tigray, Amhara and Afar. That is why a daylight convoy, if the sightings hold, would matter more than another claim of fighting on a front line. The town is on the road south toward Mekelle, the regional capital, which pro-government forces retook on 4 October after the Tigray People's Liberation Front pulled out.

Eritrea's information minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, denied that Eritrean forces were in Adigrat. He said the allegations were meant to give Ethiopia a pretext to attack Eritrea, and that Addis Ababa had tried to recast a war agenda as self-defence by fabricating claims. His denial is on the record. The sightings are not confirmed.

Agence France-Presse carried a parallel account. A local official in Adigrat, also unnamed, told AFP that Eritrean soldiers had been in the city for about four days and that residents were worried. One witness described troops in Eritrean uniforms moving south on the main road. Another said trucks and patrol vehicles were heading toward Idaga Hamus, about 20 kilometres south of Adigrat, carrying heavy weapons. A militia commander told AFP that his men had reached Wukro, roughly 50 kilometres north of Mekelle, on the road that leads toward Eritrea.

The diplomatic break is recent. Ethiopia and Eritrea severed ties last week. Addis Ababa accuses Asmara of backing the rebel alliance that has been fighting federal troops since 23 September. Eritrea denies that. Egypt and Sudan, also named in Ethiopian claims about support for the opposition, have denied any such role. The US State Department urged both capitals to show restraint on Saturday, 3 October, and warned that a wider fight would put cooperation with Washington at risk.

The last time Eritrean soldiers were openly inside Tigray, they were on the federal side. During the 2020-2022 war, Eritrean units fought with Ethiopian forces against the TPLF, a fact recorded by Ethiopia's own government, by UN experts and by human rights organisations. Asmara has denied that some of those soldiers stayed on after the ceasefire. The new claims reverse the old alignment: Addis Ababa now treats Eritrea as a backer of the force it once fought alongside.

The older file is long. Eritrea was an Ethiopian province until it won independence in 1993 after a 30-year war. A border war from 1998 to 2000 killed tens of thousands. Relations were formally repaired in 2018, a step that helped earn Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed the Nobel Peace Prize. They soured again during the Tigray war. Eritrea has treated Ethiopian talk of sea access as a threat. Ethiopia says it wants that access by peaceful means.

Afar's chief administrator said last week that Eritrean troops were fighting in his region. Reuters has not confirmed that claim. Wednesday's Adigrat accounts are narrower: a town that has not seen clashes, two trucks, off-white uniforms, a road south. If they are wrong, Asmara's charge of a pretext stands. If they are right, Eritrean soldiers are already south of the border while both governments still deny a second front.

The practical question is not the slogan of a Horn war. It is whether the road from Adigrat to Mekelle now has a second army on it, and whether either capital will let an outside observer count the trucks.