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Ethiopia PM rules out war with Eritrea over Red Sea access

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ADDIS ABABA, March 20 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Thursday that his government would not seek conflict with longtime foe Eritrea over access to the Red Sea, after regional officials and experts warned of a possible war between the Horn of Africa neighbours. "Ethiopia does not have any intention of engaging in conflict with Eritrea for the purpose of gaining access to the sea," Abiy said, according to a post by his office on X.

Though access to the Red Sea was an existential matter for landlocked Ethiopia, his government wanted to address it peacefully via dialogue, Abiy added.

Fears of war emerged in recent weeks after Eritrea ordered a nationwide military mobilisation, according to a human rights group, and Ethiopia deployed troops toward the border, diplomatic sources and officials told Reuters.

Renewed clashes between two of Africa's largest armies would end a historic rapprochement for which Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and risk a humanitarian disaster in a region already grappling with the fallout of the Sudan war.

The rapprochement saw Eritrea back Ethiopian federal forces during the 2020-2022 war between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and Ethiopia's central government, which killed hundreds of thousands of people.

But the neighbours fell out again after Eritrea was frozen out of talks to end that war in November 2022.

Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Ammu Kannampilly and Gareth Jones

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