Ethiopia Says It Seized 56,000 Rounds Allegedly Sent From Eritrea, Raising Tensions

ADDIS ABABA, Jan 15 — Ethiopian federal police said they intercepted a large shipment of ammunition this week, alleging it had been sent from Eritrea to armed groups in the Amhara region. The accusation has sharply escalated a diplomatic feud between the two neighbours and prompted vehement denials from Asmara.

In a statement late on Wednesday, federal police said officers had seized 56,000 rounds of ammunition and detained two suspects in Amhara, where the Fano militia has been engaged in an insurgency since 2023. Police said preliminary investigations of the two suspects indicated the consignment came from Eritrea's ruling party, sometimes referred to as Shabiya.

The preliminary investigation conducted on the two suspects who were caught red-handed has confirmed that the ammunition was sent by the Shabiya government, the police statement said.

Eritrea dismissed the allegation. Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel accused Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's Prosperity Party of manufacturing a pretext for war, saying the government was "floating false flags to justify the war that it has been itching to unleash for two long years."

In a separate interview, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki said the Prosperity Party had effectively declared war on Eritrea, but insisted his country did not seek conflict while stressing it would defend itself.

The two countries have a fraught history. They fought a brutal border war from 1998 to 2000. In 2018 they signed a landmark agreement to normalise relations, a rapprochement that helped secure Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. Eritrean forces later fought alongside Ethiopian troops during the 2020-2022 conflict in the Tigray region.

Ties have since deteriorated. Observers cite Asmara's exclusion from the post-Tigray peace process and growing tensions over Ethiopian statements asserting a right to access the sea for landlocked Ethiopia—comments that many in Eritrea view as an implicit security threat. Prime Minister Abiy maintains that Ethiopia seeks dialogue rather than confrontation on the issue of sea access.

Reuters was the original source for the reporting of the seizure and the statements from both governments. The allegations have not been independently verified by third-party investigators. The incident underscores how fragile the peace between Addis Ababa and Asmara remains and how quickly rhetoric can escalate into a broader security crisis.