ADDIS ABABA
\nEthiopian police said they had seized thousands of rounds of ammunition sent by Eritrea to rebels in Ethiopia\u2019s Amhara region, an allegation Eritrea dismissed as a falsehood intended to justify starting a war.
\nThe charge by Ethiopia\u2019s federal police escalates a feud between Ethiopia and Eritrea, longstanding foes who reached a peace deal in 2018 that has since given way to renewed threats and acrimony.
\nThe police said in a statement late on Wednesday they had seized 56,000 rounds of \u2060ammunition and arrested two suspects this week in the Amhara region, where Fano rebels have waged an insurgency since 2023.
\n\u201cThe preliminary investigation conducted on the two suspects who were caught red-handed has confirmed that the ammunition was sent by the Shabiya government,\u201d the statement said, using a term for Eritrea\u2019s ruling party.
\nEritrea\u2019s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel told Reuters that Ethiopian Prime \u2060Minister Abiy Ahmed\u2019s Prosperity Party (PP) was looking for a pretext to attack.
\n\u201cThe PP regime is floating false flags to justify the war that it has been itching to unleash for two long years,\u201d he said.
\nIn an interview earlier this week with state-run media, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki said the Prosperity Party had declared war on his country. He said Eritrea did not want war, but added: \u201cWe know how to defend our nation.\u201d
\nThe two countries fought a three-year border war that broke out in 1998, five years after Eritrea won its independence from Ethiopia. They \u2060signed a historic agreement to normalize relations in 2018 that won Ethiopia\u2019s Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize the following year. Eritrean troops then fought in support of Ethiopia\u2019s army during a 2020-22 civil war in Ethiopia\u2019s northern Tigray region.
\nBut relations soured after Asmara was frozen out of the peace deal that ended that conflict. Since then, Eritrea has bristled at repeated public declarations by Abiy that landlocked Ethiopia has a right to sea access \u2014 comments many in Eritrea, which lies on the Red Sea, view as an implicit threat of military action.
\nAbiy has said Ethiopia does not seek conflict with Eritrea and wants to address the issue of sea access through dialogue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ADDIS ABABA Ethiopian police said they had seized thousands of rounds of ammunition sent by Eritrea to rebels in Ethiopia\u2019s Amhara region, an allegation Eritrea dismissed as a falsehood intended to justify starting a war. The charge by Ethiopia\u2019s federal police escalates a feud between Ethiopia and Eritrea, longstanding foes who reached a peace deal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-525857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n