Eritrea’s Afwerki Accuses US of Assisting Tigray Rebels During Conflict in Ethiopia

In November 2022, the government of Ethiopia and rebels from the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) signed a peace agreement that ended a two-year-long armed conflict in the Tigray region in the north of the country. The conflict saw, according to reports, the deaths of thousands of people and displacement of millions more.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has accused Washington of supporting the Tigray People's Liberation Front during the recently ended armed conflict between the rebel group and Ethiopian federal forces in the northern region of Tigray.

During a televised interview on Eritrea's state-owned Eri-TV and radio on Sunday, the Eritrean leader claimed that the November 2022 peace agreement between the two sides of the conflict was worked out “mainly” by the United States, which rushed reaching a deal in order to prevent the TPLF’s total defeat in the war it initiated in November 2020.

“Within less than three weeks, the TPLF forces started crying and preparing to flee because of how things were changing [on the battlefield] so dramatically and at such a rapid pace,” Afwerki said. “The agreement was prepared and [the TPLF] was ordered to sign it, which they did, because they had no other option.”

The president added that the US administration was more concerned than the TPLF leaders about the situation, so it ran to what he called a “tactic of neutrality” in order to serve “US strategic interests.”

The Tigray People's Liberation Front was dominant in the coalition that governed Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018. After the group lost its position, tensions began to grow between it and the new government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

During the TPLF's rule in Ethiopia, relations between Addis Ababa and Asmara became increasingly hostile after the 1998 Eritrean-Ethiopian War. The two nations signed a peace agreement in 2018 after the election of PM Ahmed.

Afwerki also criticized the US National Security Strategy for global and regional peace, saying that Washington’s “deep-rooted political culture anchored on greed and domination by a tiny few” has resulted in numerous conflicts across the world over the past decades.

However, the Eritrean leader noted that his country, which gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, “has no reservations” if the peace deal in the neighboring nation is implemented in good faith and in its entirety.

On November 2, 2022, a two-year-long armed conflict between the Ethiopian federal forces and the rebellious Tigray People's Liberation Front was put to an end as a result of a peace process led by the African Union.

The conflict erupted in November 2020, when rebels of the nationalist TPLF group attacked Ethiopian military bases in what the rebels called a preemptive strike.

Since the signing of the agreement in Pretoria, South Africa, peaceful everyday life has gradually resumed in the northern war-torn Tigray region, where thousands of people, according to media reports, were killed and millions more displaced.

The deal eased the way for humanitarian aid, access to which was previously restricted, and the gradual return of public services, including flights, banking, telecommunications, electricity, and fuel.