Ethiopia and its neighbours should accept international mediation before the fighting crosses borders

Study and practice of how sovereign states, international institutions, and non-state actors interact across borders. Encompasses diplomacy, negotiation, alliances, and conflict — the foundational domain through which global order is constructed, contested, and maintained.

Fighting between Ethiopian federal forces and Tigrayan forces in northern Ethiopia, including airstrikes and artillery fire, and its spillover into relations with Eritrea, Egypt and neighbouring states, raising fears of a wider regional war.

Ethiopia invoked self-defence in a UN Security Council letter alleging an Eritrean troop incursion. Eritrea rejected the justification and accused Ethiopia of seeking forcible Red Sea access. AP footage showed Ethiopian forces entering Adigrat, but the agency could not independently verify the incursion allegations.