Description: Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister, Gedion Timothewos, has sent a letter to the UN expressing the country’s concern over Eritrea’s collusion with the Tigray’s People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) hardliners in the country and preparing to wage war against the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Gedion has accused Eritrea of financing, training and logistically supporting the Tigray region hardliners in order to destabilize Ethiopia through stoking tensions in the Amhara region, where the TPLF has been historically the most active rebel group. Gedion, in the letter addressed to the UN’s Secretary General, Antonio Gutteres, also expressed Ethiopia’s concerns over the familiarization of bilateral ties between Eritrea and Egypt, which has largely criticized Ethiopia’s mega dam project on the Nile River. Tensions have been gradually escalating since Ethiopia has continuously campaigned to regain access to the ports in the Red Sea which it lost with Eritrea’s independence in 1993.
Impact: Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project was supposed to ease domestic tensions with separatist and rebel groups such as the TPLF but has instead created fertile grounds for foreign interference and potential regional instability. Eritrea and Ethiopia have been gradually escalating tensions in recent months since Ethiopia’s armed forces have increased anti – rebel operations in the Amhara region and accused Eritrea of supporting the TPLF for causing domestic destabilization. The GERD project added to the regional tensions and pushed Egypt towards rekindling relations with Eritrea and supporting the country in its campaign to destabilize Ethiopia as it sees GERD as a major impediment to its national interests. Tensions in the region would continue to rise exponentially, with elevated possibility of a renewed armed confrontation.