Omna Tigray Statement on the Movement of Eritrean Forces into Tigray

Omna Tigray condemns in the strongest possible terms the reported movement of Eritrean military forces into Tigray, and calls for their immediate and complete withdrawal from Tigrayan territory. We are gravely concerned for the safety of millions of Tigrayan civilians who, while enduring a worsening siege, once again face bombardment and the spreading presence of a foreign army that has committed atrocities against them. 

Multiple news outlets, including Reuters and Agence France-Presse, have reported that Eritrean forces are moving further into Tigray. Witnesses described soldiers in Eritrean uniforms moving through Adigrat and advancing south toward Mekelle with heavy weaponry. Eritrea denies any involvement, and independent conflict monitors say the reports remain difficult to verify. These accounts are gravely alarming.

The reported incursion follows a sharp deterioration in Ethiopia’s relations with its neighbors. On October 1, 2026, the Ethiopian federal government expelled ten Eritrean diplomats and closed its embassy in Asmara, and Eritrea severed diplomatic relations and closed its own embassy in Addis Ababa in response. At the same time, Ethiopia ordered a senior Egyptian diplomat to leave the country, and Egypt expelled an Ethiopian diplomat in return. These deteriorating relations are drawing Tigray into a widening regional confrontation in which its civilians are the most exposed.

Tigray has seen what prolonged war can do. The 2020-2022 genocidal war claimed an estimated 600,000 lives at minimum, many of them through starvation and the collapse of healthcare rather than direct combat. An open-ended conflict, now entangled with Ethiopia’s ruptured relations with Eritrea and Egypt, risks repeating that catastrophe and deepening conflict across the Horn of Africa. Civilians in Tigray, Afar, and Amhara would bear the cost, and another generation of children would grow up displaced, out of school, and carrying the trauma of violence. 

Omna Tigray is calling for:

• The Government of Eritrea: to immediately withdraw all of its forces from Tigrayan territory and refrain from any further incursion, to comply fully with international humanitarian law and ensure that its forces do not harm civilians, to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia, and to refrain from inflammatory statements that only fuel a wider regional war;
• The Ethiopian federal government and all parties to the fighting: to restore telecommunications throughout Tigray, to allow unhindered humanitarian access, to comply fully with international humanitarian law across Tigray, Afar, and Amhara, and to refrain from inflammatory statements, including rhetoric that threatens Eritrea’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, which only fuels a wider regional war;
• The African Union, United Nations, European Union, United States, United Kingdom, and IGAD: to secure a verifiable cessation of hostilities and facilitate a comprehensive peace plan that ensures the complete withdrawal of all occupying forces, and to urgently deploy an independent mechanism, with unrestricted access, to verify and report publicly on the presence and conduct of all foreign and domestic forces in Tigray, including the reported Eritrean deployment.

Omna Tigray, Press Release, October 7, 2026