Eritrean troops seen inside Ethiopia's Tigray region

Eritrean soldiers have been seen inside northern Ethiopia, according to witnesses, raising fears that the war in Tigray could become a conflict between the two countries.

At least two witnesses told the Reuters news agency they saw "dozens" of Eritrean soldiers driving through the town of Adigrat in two trucks on Wednesday. Adigrat lies around 25km south of the border with Eritrea. The witnesses said they recognised the soldiers by their off-white camouflage uniforms. Reuters could not independently verify their accounts.

"Equipped with heavy weaponry"

Gebreigziabher Beyene, commander of the Tigray Peace Force, a pro-government militia fighting alongside the Ethiopian army, said: "The Eritrean army has entered Tigray in uniform, equipped with heavy weaponry. This force is being struck by drones."

He accused Eritrea of "deliberately deploying its forces so that the fighting takes place inside Tigray rather than spilling into Eritrea".

Eritrea's response

Eritrea's Information Minister, Yemane Meskel, did not deny that troops had crossed the border, but said Ethiopia's government was creating "a fallacious narrative of 'self-defense' to rationalise and camouflage its war of aggression".

How the crisis escalated

• 23 September: fighting broke out between Ethiopian forces and a seven-group armed alliance that includes the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which is fighting to remove the government.
• 1 October: Eritrea cut all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia, after Addis Ababa closed its embassy in Asmara and expelled 10 Eritrean diplomats.
• 4 October: Ethiopian forces captured Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, days after the TPLF said it had withdrawn.
• 7 October: witnesses report Eritrean troops in Adigrat.

Ethiopia has accused Eritrea, Egypt and Sudan of backing the armed alliance. All three deny it.

The Red Sea question

Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, sworn in this month for another five-year term, has insisted that his landlocked country must have access to the Red Sea. Ethiopia lost its coastline when Eritrea became independent in 1993, and Eritrea regards the demand as a threat to its sovereignty.

Eritrea has joined Somalia, Sudan and Egypt in a joint declaration calling for a political and peaceful solution to the war, a move seen as pushing back against Ethiopia's policies in the region.

A history of conflict

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a border war from 1998 to 2000 in which tens of thousands died. They made peace in 2018, a deal that earned Mr Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize, and Eritrean troops fought on the Ethiopian government's side in the 2020 to 2022 Tigray war, in which hundreds of thousands of people died. Relations soured again towards the end of that war.

Aid agencies have warned that a renewed war would be catastrophic for Tigray, where many people still depend on food aid after the last conflict.