Ethiopia's army chief accuses Egypt and Sudan of backing alliance seeking to remove Abiy
Ethiopia's top military commander claims Egypt and Sudan, with Eritrea acting as a go-between, are supporting a new alliance of armed groups aiming to oust Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The claim comes amid a Nile dam dispute with Cairo and renewed fighting in northern Ethiopia.
Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, head of Ethiopia's armed forces, has publicly accused Egypt and Sudan of backing a newly formed alliance of armed groups seeking to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed from power. In an interview with the army's own media outlet, he argued the groups could not operate without being "pushed, supported and supplied" from abroad, and named Eritrea as the link connecting foreign backers to armed factions inside Ethiopia. He offered no evidence for the claim, and as of Sunday morning neither Egypt nor Sudan had issued a public response.
The alliance in question, announced a week earlier, unites seven groups, among them the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the Oromo Liberation Army and the Amhara Fano National Movement. Its members say their goal is to remove Abiy's government and install a transitional administration. The accusation lands as fighting has flared again in northern Ethiopia, with Tigrayan forces seizing airports and clashing with federal troops in the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions. UN human rights chief Volker Türk has urged an immediate end to the violence, warning Ethiopia risks sliding back into full-scale war.
Nile dam dispute
Birhanu's accusation against Egypt follows a fresh exchange between Cairo and Addis Ababa over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Egypt's Water Resources Minister Hani Sewilam said last week that Ethiopian officials needed to understand that building a dam on a shared river is not comparable to laying a carpet inside one's own home, rejecting Ethiopia's position that dam decisions fall solely under its national sovereignty. Ethiopia's Water and Energy Ministry hit back, describing the remarks as reflecting a "crude colonial mentality" and accusing Cairo of behaving as though its consent were required before upstream Nile countries could use the river's water.
Egypt and Sudan are seeking a legally binding agreement governing the dam's operation, especially during extended droughts, along with information-sharing on water releases. Ethiopia maintains the dam is vital for electricity generation and national development and insists it will not cause significant harm to Egypt or Sudan. Egypt draws more than 90% of its freshwater from the Nile. Ethiopia formally inaugurated the dam in September 2025 without securing a binding agreement with either downstream country.
Relations with Sudan and Eritrea have also deteriorated. In May, Sudan accused Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates of involvement in drone strikes on Khartoum airport, saying the drones had launched from Ethiopia's Bahir Dar airport; Ethiopia rejected the claim and in turn accused Sudan of backing Tigrayan fighters, with neither side's allegations independently verified. Eritrea, which fought alongside Ethiopia's federal army against Tigrayan forces during the 2020-2022 war, has seen ties with Addis Ababa sour since the peace deal that ended that conflict, and has repeatedly denied Ethiopia's claims that it supports the new armed alliance.
