The African Union urged Ethiopia and its neighbors to exercise restraint as growing tensions threaten to destabilize the region.
Addis Ababa has accused Egypt, Eritrea, and Sudan of supporting armed opposition groups that have fought Ethiopia’s federal troops in the northern Tigray region since last week. The three countries deny the accusation.
The AU Commission on Thursday called on the countries to “address their differences through established diplomatic channels and peaceful dialogue.” It issued the statement after Eritrea severed diplomatic ties with Ethiopia in response to Addis Ababa’s decision to close its embassy in Asmara and declare 10 Eritrean diplomats persona non grata.
Tensions over control of the contested Tigray region have grown in recent months. The latest clashes mark the biggest outbreak of violence since the 2020-2022 conflict in the northern region that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths. Experts fear renewed fighting could quickly spill into a wider conflict across the Horn of Africa, potentially further destabilizing shipping in the Red Sea, which has been hit by the Iran war: Eritrea has more than 2,000 km of coastline.