Trucks in a quiet town: Eritrean troops reported inside northern Ethiopia

ADIGRAT: Two residents of this northern Ethiopian town say Eritrean soldiers drove through its streets on Wednesday morning, in two trucks carrying dozens of troops they identified by off-white camouflage uniforms. A third resident said family members had seen the same. If confirmed, it would be the first sighting of Eritrean forces on Ethiopian soil in the current northern conflict, which broke out last month between the federal government and a rebel alliance. Reuters could not independently verify the accounts, and all three witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns.

Eritrea's information minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, denied that Eritrean forces were in Adigrat and dismissed the reports as part of an Ethiopian plan to justify a war of aggression against its smaller neighbour. Spokespeople for Ethiopia's government and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Ethiopia has accused Eritrea of backing the rebel alliance fighting federal troops since September 23 in Tigray, Amhara and Afar. The chief administrator of Afar said last week that Eritrean troops were already fighting in his region, a claim that also remains unconfirmed.

Adigrat lies about 25 kilometres south of the Eritrean border and, residents say, has not seen clashes in the current fighting. That is what makes a drive-through significant. A convoy in a quiet town is not a battle report; it is a signal, read by civilians as a warning that the distance between a regional war and their street is closing. The two countries severed diplomatic ties last week after Ethiopia closed its embassy in Asmara and declared Eritrean diplomats unwelcome, and each side now describes the other as the aggressor in waiting.

The history gives residents little comfort. Eritrean forces fought alongside Ethiopia's federal government in the 2020 to 2022 Tigray war, then relations soured over the peace settlement that Eritrea was not party to and over landlocked Ethiopia's insistence that access to the sea is vital to its security. Eritrea fears an attempt to take its port of Assab by force; Addis Ababa says it seeks access by peaceful means. Human rights groups have already warned that Eritrean refugees and civilians inside Ethiopia are at grave risk if the confrontation widens.

For now, the hardest fact is the uncertainty itself. A denied convoy, an unverified sighting and a closed embassy leave civilians in the north to plan their lives around rumours of trucks. The United States has urged both governments to exercise restraint, warning that the Horn of Africa cannot sustain another military conflict and humanitarian crisis. In Adigrat, restraint is no longer an abstraction. It is whether the next vehicles on the street are buses, or soldiers.