Tensions escalated between Ethiopia and Eritrea after Ethiopian police announced the confiscation of a truck containing ammunition allegedly sent from Eritrea to the Fano rebels in Amhara state, who have been witnessing a rebellion against the Ethiopian army since 2023.
In response to these developments, Eritrea’s Information Minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, accused Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Prosperity Party of trying to find a pretext to attack Eritrea, noting that “false flags are being raised to justify the war that he has been seeking to launch for two years.”
This crisis comes in the context of the ongoing dispute between the two countries over landlocked Ethiopia's access to the Red Sea, which it lost after Eritrea's independence in 1993, which constitutes a strategic restriction on Africa's second most populous country. It makes the port of Assab a focal point in the conflict, as it symbolizes the ongoing conflict between Ethiopia's desire for direct access to the sea and the preservation of Eritrea's sovereignty.
