Ethiopian gains in Tigray risk wider war with Eritrea, analyst warns

Ethiopia's military advances in northern Tigray do not spell an end to the conflict but have the potential to increase the risk of war with neighbouring Eritrea, an analyst with knowledge of the region has warned. On Friday, Ethiopia appointed an interim government to run Tigray. The government advances into northern Tigray definitely increase the chances of a war with Eritrea. I mean, now the Ethiopian forces and the Eritrean forces are located very close together, albeit probably either side of their border. I think the Eritreans' entry into Tigray and then their reversal and going back to the border suggests that they wanted to support the Tigrayan forces. But as the federal forces pushed up north through Tigray, they decided actually that they didn't want to engage the government at this point in time. What we don't know now is whether the Ethiopian government will decide that it needs to take action against the Eritreans and possibly cross the border into Eritrea to fight its forces there. Taylor recalled that Tigrayan forces had regrouped in rural areas after losing towns during the previous war warning that further fighting could bring more destruction and disruption. I think it's important to remember that during the last war the Tigrayans, the TPLF also exited the main towns or pushed out of many of the main towns but then experienced a resurgence in the rural areas so we shouldn't imagine that this conflict is completely over just because the TPLF has lost Mekelle, there's potentially quite a lot of fighting, quite a lot of destruction and disruption to Tigray that will continue Ethiopia has accused Eritrea of sending troops across the border and occupying Ethiopian territory. Eritrea has denied supporting the TPLF and condemned Ethiopia's assertion that it was taking self-defense measures as a declaration of war.