Are Ethiopian and Eritrean forces fighting with heavy weapons and aircraft in Afar, as an EEPA report says?

What was claimed

EEPA’s situation report of 12 October, the same report whose claims about prisoners and armed civil servants we reviewed earlier, also says this about Ethiopia’s Afar region A:

The Bure, Denakil, Garbo and Awala areas in the Afar region are now considered active combat zones between Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. These clashes involve infantry, heavy weapons and aircrafts.

IDN-InDepthNews republished it the same day B.

If true, this would mean the two countries’ armies are already fighting a conventional war on a second front, on the road to the Eritrean port of Assab, with aircraft involved. That is a different conflict from the one the news agencies have described, in which the reported Eritrean presence was in Tigray and Eritrea denies it.

Who says so

The report does not say. “Are now considered” does not say considered by whom. Elsewhere in the same section, EEPA attributes its items: “according to a source in Mekelle”, “according to a resident”, “allegedly” A. In the next section, the claim that Ethiopian troops crossed into Eritrea and took Daba Sima is labelled “according to unverified reports” A. We found that claim to be false. The Afar claim, the largest in the report, carries no attribution at all.

What we checked

We found no news agency report of fighting between Ethiopian and Eritrean forces in Afar in October.

The conflict monitor ACLED is the source most outlets have cited for Eritrean troop movements this month. Its Ethiopia page, updated on 13 October, records Eritrean forces in Tigray on 7, 10 and 12 October. It records none in Afar, and does not mention Bure, Denakil or Garbo C. The only “Awala” it lists is Adi Awala, on the road from Shire to Sheraro in north-western Tigray, at the opposite end of the country’s northern border from Bure.

An earlier version of the claim exists. In the week before 7 October, Afar’s chief administrator said Eritrean troops were fighting in the region. Reuters reported it and said: “Reuters could not confirm that” D. The analysis service RANE has since referred to “reports” of clashes around Bure, without saying whose E.

We found no images, footage, casualty reports or humanitarian agency statements describing a battle involving aircraft and heavy weapons in any of the four areas named.

Our verdict

Unsupported. EEPA states that four areas of Afar are active combat zones between Ethiopian and Eritrean forces, with infantry, heavy weapons and aircraft, without naming any source, while attributing the smaller items around it. The only earlier claim of Eritrean forces fighting in Afar came from a regional official and could not be confirmed by Reuters. ACLED records no such fighting. If evidence emerges, we will review this fact check.