An informed Egyptian source on Saturday rejected allegations linking Cairo to renewed unrest in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region where fighting resumed between Tigrayan forces and the federal government, nearly four years after a peace deal ended a two-year war. Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, chief of general staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, accused foreign powers of supporting a newly formed armed alliance seeking to destabilize Ethiopia. “The Tigray front and the alliance cannot achieve anything on their own unless they are pushed, supported and supplied by Sudan, Egypt and other forces,” Jula said in remarks carried by Ethiopian media Friday. He also accused Eritrea of acting as an intermediary between foreign powers and armed groups inside Ethiopia. Tigrayan forces seized three airports in the region and launched attacks in neighboring Afar and Amhara in recent days, marking the most serious escalation since the devastating 2020-2022 war. The Egyptian source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Ethiopia’s insinuations were “allegations that do not merit a response,” adding that Cairo “has nothing to do with such polemics.” The source urged Ethiopian authorities to “address their own internal crises and problems instead of trying to blame their domestic failures on external parties.” The Tigray crisis was a longstanding internal issue, the source added, stressing that Egypt maintains “a consistent and strict policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.” Egyptian strategic and military expert Samir Ragheb similarly told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Ethiopian military chief’s remarks amounted to assumptions intended to shift responsibility for Addis Ababa’s internal problems onto outside actors. Ragheb argued that Ethiopia’s reference to outside support was based largely on geography, given Tigray’s northern borders with Sudan and Eritrea. “If Egypt had sought to intervene in Ethiopia to exert pressure over other issues, it would have done so during the 2020 fighting, when the conflict was at its height and before construction phases of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam had been completed,” he said. Ragheb described the fighting as a longstanding domestic struggle over power and resources, stemming from disputes over governance and efforts to weaken Ethiopia’s federal system. He also urged that the Tigray conflict be kept separate from the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, saying there was no operational or strategic link between fighting in Tigray and the dam. Ragheb argued that Addis Ababa’s accusations were intended to deflect attention from what he described as failures to fulfill commitments under the 2022 Pretoria peace agreement. He stressed that Cairo does not support armed factions or movements against African states. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition from 1991 until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018 and marginalized the group, contributing to tensions that erupted into war in 2020. The Pretoria agreement ended that conflict in 2022, but tensions and intermittent clashes subsequently returned before escalating sharply this month.
