LONDON – The United States and European Union are raising alarm over the recent deployment of troops from Eritrea to Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where nine months of war have killed thousands of people and sparked a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Forces from Ethiopia’s Tigray recaptured much of the territory in June, in a major setback for Ethiopia’s government, Reuters reported Tuesday. But the new Eritrean deployments, which come months after Ethiopia said foreign troops were pulling out, raise the prospect of an escalation of fighting.
The United States is concerned that large numbers of (Eritrean Defence Forces) have re-entered Ethiopia, after withdrawing in June, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement on Monday.
These statements came at a time when the US Treasury announced the imposition of sanctions on a prominent Eritrean official accused of committing human rights violations during the war in Tigray. Eritrea said the allegations were unfounded.
Meanwhile, EU diplomats wrote in an internal memo on August 20 that Eritrea is sending reinforcements across the border to Tigray.
The document, seen by Reuters, states that Eritrean forces have deployed in the already disputed western part of Tigray and have taken defensive positions with tanks and artillery around the towns of Adi Gosho and Hamira.
It also said that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited the Eritrean capital Asmara on August 17, a visit his office had not announced, while on his way to an official meeting in Turkey.
Spokesmen for the Eritrean Information Ministry, the Ethiopian prime minister and the Ethiopian military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The war broke out last year between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which controls the Tigray region, and has since forced more than two million people to flee their homes.
Eritrean forces have entered Tigray to fight alongside federal forces in a conflict marked by abuses including rape, according to investigations by Reuters, the United Nations and international human rights organisations.
The Ethiopian government said in April that Eritrean forces had begun withdrawing.
However, the spokesman for the Tigrayan forces repeatedly said that the Eritrean soldiers remained. He could not be immediately reached for comment.
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