Eritrean forces fought alongside the Ethiopian army against Tigrayan fighters during the war, which began in November 2020 in the region bordering Eritrea.
Ethiopia's prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has accused Eritrean forces of carrying out mass killings and widespread destruction during the two-year war in the northern Tigray region, which ended in 2022.
Abiy made the allegation while addressing parliament, acknowledging for the first time that Eritrean troops massacred civilians in the historic city of Aksum during the conflict, BBC reports.
Eritrean forces fought alongside the Ethiopian army against Tigrayan fighters during the war, which began in November 2020 in the region bordering Eritrea.
The prime minister’s comments relate to long-standing allegations that hundreds of civilians were killed in Aksum over two days in late November 2020, claims that Eritrea had previously denied.
Abiy’s admission marks a reversal of his earlier position. On November 30, 2020, he told parliament that “not a single civilian was killed” during the operation.
In his latest address, Abiy said Eritrean soldiers carried out mass killings of young people and accused them of demolishing homes, looting properties, destroying industries and seizing machinery in towns including Adwa, Aksum, Adigrat and Shire.
He said he had dispatched envoys to Eritrea during the war, urging its government to halt the destruction and killings.
The comments come amid renewed tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea, whose relationship has shifted repeatedly between cooperation and hostility. Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for ending a 20-year border stalemate with Eritrea.
Relations later strengthened during the Tigray war but have since deteriorated, particularly over Ethiopia’s desire for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea and accusations that Asmara has changed its position in Tigray.
The African Union brokered a ceasefire between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in November 2022, but Eritrea was not a signatory to the Pretoria Agreement and opposed the truce.
During the war, communications were largely cut off and journalists denied access to Tigray, though investigations by the BBC and human rights groups such as Amnesty International later documented alleged atrocities in Aksum.
Witnesses said hundreds of unarmed civilians, mostly boys and men, were killed by Eritrean soldiers during house-to-house raids on 28 and 29 November 2020.
Abiy’s remarks came as passenger flights between Addis Ababa and cities in Tigray resumed after a five-day suspension caused by clashes in a disputed area of western Tigray.
An African Union envoy has estimated that about 600,000 people were killed during the two-year Tigray war.