File photo: An Ethiopian Federal Police officers pass by during a ceremony of honoring members of the Federal Police Force in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. AFP
In a statement posted on Facebook on Wednesday, Ethiopian police said they had seized “more than 56,000 rounds of ammunition” in the Amhara region, which they alleged were intended to arm Fano, a militant group that took up arms against the federal government in 2023.
Police said the ammunition was transported in a lorry and alleged it had been sent from Eritrea and transited through the northern region of Tigray with the assistance of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
In October, Ethiopia accused Eritrea of attempting to destabilise the country by financing armed groups, particularly in Amhara. Eritrea rejected the accusations, calling them a “sham.”
Responding to the latest ammunition seizure claims, TPLF Vice President Amanuel Assefa dismissed the allegations as “unfounded,” telling AFP that federal authorities in Addis Ababa were “looking for a pretext to undermine the Pretoria Agreement” that ended the war.
The TPLF governed Ethiopia for decades until it was displaced by the administration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed when he took power in 2018, before later fighting a devastating civil war against federal forces from 2020 to 2022.
Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, and the two countries fought a border war from 1998 to 2000.
Abiy initially sought rapprochement with Eritrea after taking office, earning him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. The two governments later cooperated against Tigrayan forces during the 2020–2022 war but subsequently fell out over the peace agreement, from which Eritrea was excluded.
Relations between the two countries have again deteriorated sharply in recent months.
In an interview with state television on Monday, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki said Ethiopia’s ruling party had “declared war.”
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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