The

Tigray People's Liberation Front The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF; ti, ህዝባዊ ወያነ ሓርነት ትግራይ, lit=Popular Struggle for the Freedom of Tigray), also called the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing ethnic nationalist paramilitar ...

fired rockets at

Asmara Asmara ( ), or Asmera, is the capital and most populous city of Eritrea, in the country's Central Region. It sits at an elevation of , making it the sixth highest capital in the world by altitude and the second highest capital in Africa. The ...

(Eritrea) on 14 and 27 November 2020 during the

Tigray War The Tigray War; ; . was an armed conflict that lasted from 3 November 2020 to 3 November 2022. The war was primarily fought in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia between the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrea on one side, and the Tigray Peop ...

12–13 November

According to

Mesfin Hagos Mesfin Hagos is an Eritrean who was one of the founding members of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF). In government, he was the Eritrean Minister of Defence during the 1990s. After repression by president Isaias Afwerki against Mesfin ...

, former Eritrean Minister of Defence and ardent opposition leader against the Eritrean government, during 12 and 13 November, 30 military flights carrying "thousands" of federal Ethiopian soldiers arrived in

, the capital city of

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

. Mesfin interpreted the flights as a part of Eritrean–Ethiopian military cooperation in the

that preceded the 14 November rocket attacks.

14 November

On 14 November 2020, multiple rockets launched from

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

hit Asmara. Two rockets hit

Asmara International Airport Asmara International Airport, , is the international airport of Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. It is the country's largest airport and, as of 2017, the only one receiving regularly scheduled services. History The airport was constructed by th ...

. The same day the

Eritrean government The Politics of Eritrea and the Government of Eritrea takes place in a framework of a single-party presidential republican totalitarian dictatorship. The President officially serves as both head of state and head of government. The People's F ...

confirmed that missiles were launched at the capital but denied the city had been hit, saying that they landed in the countryside. The attack came just hours after the

(TPLF) threatened to target Eritrea. The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Tibor Nagy condemned the TPLF for the rocket attacks calling them "unjustifiable attacks against Eritrea ... its efforts to internationalize the conflict in Tigray." The Secretary of State of the United States

Mike Pompeo Michael Richard Pompeo (; born December 30, 1963) is an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served under President Donald Trump as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 2017 to 2018 and as the 70th United State ...

blasted the TPLF for the attack, calling on it and

Government of Ethiopia The government of Ethiopia () is the federal government of Ethiopia. It is structured in a framework of a federal republic, federal parliamentary system, parliamentary republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, prime minister is the hea ...

to de-escalate.

27 November

The TPLF again fired rockets at Eritrea on 27 November, numbering four according to the media, though the group did not claim responsibility. Eritrean Press stated that they landed near Asmara as well as surrounding towns. One diplomat stated that there were reports of one landing to the south of Asmara. Another diplomat said that one of them struck a neighbourhood of Asmara but this couldn't be confirmed. No casualties were reported in the attack. Six explosions in Asmara during the night of 28 November were reported by

United States State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

, although the reason was not immediately clear. Diplomats based in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

told

Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. AFP has regional headquarters in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong and Washington, D.C ...

that the explosions were caused by rockets, which apparently struck the

and Eritrean military facilities.

References

{{Portal bar, Africa, Eritrea 2020 in Eritrea 2020 in international relations Rocket attacks Attacks on airports in Africa 2020 building bombings Building bombings in Africa Eritrea–Ethiopia relations November 2020 events in Africa Military operations of the Tigray War Military of Tigray Attacks on military installations in 2020 Bombing operations and battles Attacks in Africa in 2020 Military operations involving airports