Fears of an all-out Ethiopia-Eritrea war as Tigray conflict escalates

There are fears of a return to all-out war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Addis Ababa accuses its neighbor of supporting an opposition alliance that wants to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Asmara has denied the allegations. However, witnesses and monitoring groups report seeing Eritrean soldiers on the ground in the Tigray region. In late September, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the TPLF, and six other rebel groups launched an offensive in Tigray, Afar, and Amhara in northern Ethiopia. Federal government troops and allied fighters struck back in early October, retaking the cities of Mekele, Adigrat, and Aksum. And this week, independent conflict monitor ACLED reported that Eritrean soldiers withdrew, crossing back over the border through the town of Zalambessa as Ethiopian troops advanced. Forces allied to the federal government have repeated accusations that the TPLF has foreign backing. The Eritrean army initially came to encourage TPLF fighters, telling them, take courage, we are behind you, and urging them to stand and fight. But after violating Ethiopia's sovereign territory, Eritrean forces have retreated towards the border. The U.S. is urging de-escalation, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling on all parties to return to the 2018 peace framework. The agreement signed eight years ago in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, ended a 20-year state of war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Norwegian Nobel Committee... The significance of that moment was recognized globally, and Prime Minister Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a year later. But that peace is buckling under the weight of the latest conflict, with thousands of civilians caught up in the fighting. A heavy projectile landed on our compound. I've already buried two of my children and brought my third child here for medical treatment. I've suffered a great deal of distress and hardship. The region is at a tipping point, And the conflict could spiral rapidly into overlapping civil wars, consuming the Horn of Africa. Mike Leppel, Al Jazeera, for Inside Story.