Various sources have confirmed the presence of Eritrean armed forces in Ethiopia. An report quoted a foreign security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, as estimating that 5,000 to 8,000 Eritrean soldiers were present in Tigray. Meanwhile, Ethiopia and Eritrea are ramping up their war talk.
According to , the government of Ethiopia has written to the UN Security Council, calling for the immediate withdrawal of Eritrean troops from its territory. In the letter, dated Oct. 8, Ethiopia's Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos said the Eritrean troops' presence left Ethiopia with "no option but to defend itself against Eritrea," the news agency reported. Eritrea's Minister of Information Yemane Meskel, in a post on X on October 7, had accused Ethiopia of "incessantly beating the drums of war." "The sovereign state of Eritrea is bound by blood and law," Yemane wrote in the national Tigrinya language on October 9.
"Woe to those who touch it." The war talk by Ethiopia and Eritrea comes amid a conflict that is seen to be deteriorating rapidly in recent weeks. Some experts have suggested that Ethiopia may have intentionally triggered the escalation. Just last week, it expelled diplomats from Eritrea and Egypt, causing Eritrea to sever diplomatic ties altogether.
On Monday, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was sworn in for another five years, he stated that access to the sea was a priority. The statement fueled fresh speculation that he intends to take Eritrea's strategic port of Assab by force and prompted fierce reactions from the Eritrean side. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video While the Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF), aided by the Tigray Peace Force milita, have made significant advances and notably recaptured the Tigray federal state capital of Mekelle, opposition to Ethiopia has found new formats for collaboration.
One is the so-called Tsimdo movement, a Tigrinya term that loosely translates as "engagement." "The Tsimdo concept initially surfaced through cross-border peace initiatives involving activists, religious figures, and local communities in the Tigray and Eritrea border villages in 2025," Dr. Jalale Getachew Birru, senior East Africa analyst with the US-based conflict monitor ACLED, told DW. It has since undergone several reconfigurations and now encompasses diverse groups within Ethiopia, mostly defined along ethnic lines and with long-standing grievances against the federal government.
The Ethiopian Peoples' Forces Alliance for Survival, or simply Alliance for Survival, that was proclaimed in September, stems from this movement. According to Jalale, the alliance aims at removing the current government and initiating a constitutional dialogue. The new alliance says a lot about the long history of unresolved conflict in Ethiopia, said Abdurahman Sayed, an analyst at the Horn of Africa Centre for Regional Integration.
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