Why Ethiopia and Eritrea’s march to war demands global attention

The distant thunder of drones over Adigrat is not merely another African conflict. It is the sound of a continent’s most fragile peace shattering—and with it, the already slender prospects for stability across the Red Sea corridor that carries twelve per cent of global trade. Barely eight years after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Isaias Afwerki embraced in Asmara, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s handshake now lies in ruins. Eritrean troops have crossed into northern Tigray, advancing up to sixty kilometres into Ethiopian territory. Ethiopia has responded with multiple drone strikes targeting those forces, destroying lorries and ammunition, witnesses say, amid reports of civilian deaths. Both nations have severed diplomatic ties. Ethiopia calls it an “all-out invasion.” Eritrea calls […]