Eritrea seeks peace, rejects foreign pressure: FM

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Eritrean foreign minister told Rudaw on Friday that his country’s main goal was “peace,” days after Eritrea launched a full-scale offensive along its border with neighboring Ethiopia against Tigray forces. 

“If there is peace there is development, and if there is development also there is peace,” Osman Saleh Mohammed, Eritrea’s foreign minister, told Rudaw’s Roj Eli Zalla on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. 

On Tuesday, Tigrayan authorities stated Eritrea has launched an offensive in northern Ethiopia as restrictions on internet access and communication in the area continue. According to Getachew Reda, Tigray spokesman, Eritrean forces are fighting alongside Ethiopian federal forces and commando units.

“Eritrea is deploying its entire army as well as reservists. Our forces are heroically defending their positions,” Reda added. 

 “We don’t want to see any pressure, dominance, whatever it may be. We are a free country,” Mohammed stated, reiterating that achieving peace and stability were Eritrea’s objectives. When asked what the main obstacles to achieving these goals were, he responded it was “dominance from big countries.”

A UN report on Monday accused Ethiopia’s government of carrying out widespread violations in Tigray since fighting started in the northern region in November 2020. 

The UN Human Rights Council said it had “reasonable grounds to believe that, in several instances, these violations amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.” 

The US special envoy to the region, Mike Hammer, said on Tuesday that "the presence of Eritrean troops in Ethiopia only serves to complicate matters, and inflame an already tragic situation," as cited by AFP.