Ethiopia Accuses Regional Rivals of Backing Armed Groups as Conflict Escalates

As renewed fighting spreads across northern Ethiopia, the government has accused Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt of backing armed opposition groups, raising fears that the conflict could draw in regional powers. Over the weekend, Ethiopian army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula attributed his country’s unrest to those he called Ethiopia’s “historical and contemporary adversaries”. Birhanu accused Eritrea of being the go-between linking these external powers – including Sudan and Egypt, which he explicitly named – with armed groups inside Ethiopia.

Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt have all rejected the accusations. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nader Zaki said that Egypt’s foreign policy was founded on “full respect for the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of states, and noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries”. Zaki added that Egypt “is fully committed to the rules of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, and rejects any practices that would undermine regional security and stability”. Major-General Samir Farag, the former head of the Egyptian Armed Forces’ Morale Affairs Department, also told Al Jazeera that the accusations against Egypt were false. Sudan’s military similarly dismissed the accusations as “baseless” and accused Ethiopia of supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces since 2023. Ethiopia has denied those allegations.

Relations between Ethiopia and the accused countries have long been strained by separate disputes. Tensions between Cairo and Addis Ababa persist over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), while Khartoum has accused Addis Ababa of aiding the RSF during the Sudanese civil war. Eritrea and Ethiopia also experienced a souring of ties following the Tigray war as Eritrea grew alarmed by Ethiopia's ambitions to access the Red Sea. Meanwhile, analysts suggest the accusations may be an attempt by Addis Ababa to rally domestic support and shift attention away from internal crises, though experts warn this rhetoric risks triggering a wider regional conflict as fighting spreads through Tigray, Amhara, and Afar.