Beijing says Special Envoy Hu Changchun will visit Eritrea in early November on a 'shuttle diplomacy' mission. In Westminster, the government has told the Lords that ministers and officials have pressed Ethiopia and Eritrea to de-escalate.
China's Special Envoy for Horn of Africa Affairs, Hu Changchun, will visit Eritrea in early November, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told the ministry's regular press conference on 2 November, as reported by Fica News and the Global Times. She said Liu Xianfa, the Chinese government's Special Representative on African Affairs, would visit Ethiopia, Djibouti and Egypt in early and mid-November.
Mao Ning described the trips as "shuttle diplomacy visits" by China's special envoys, "aimed at promoting peace talks, easing tensions, and playing a constructive role in upholding regional peace and stability". Hu last visited Asmara in April 2026, when he met President Isaias Afwerki, according to Eritrea's Ministry of Information. By the morning of 4 November, CERHA had found no Eritrean announcement of the new visit.
Tension on the border
The visits come amid sharply worsening relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia since fighting resumed in northern Ethiopia in September. Turkey's Ilke News Agency (ILKHA) reported that Ethiopian federal and allied forces had reached a point about five kilometres south of the border town of Zalambessa, citing a resident, while Eritrean troops were deployed on the northern outskirts. Claims of an Ethiopian incursion into Eritrea have not been independently verified. ILKHA said Eritrea's information minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, had dismissed them as unreliable. Eritrea's London embassy has also rejected such claims and ruled out talks with Addis Ababa.
Lords written answers
In six written answers published on 3 November, Baroness Winterton of Doncaster, answering for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, responded to questions tabled on 20 October by Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench) and Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green). Baroness Jones asked about the risk that "the collapse of the Pretoria Agreement, the severing of Eritrea-Ethiopia diplomatic ties, and the war in Sudan" would draw regional actors into a wider conflict.
The identical answers (HL4292, HL4325 and others) said: "Ministers and senior officials have engaged with Ethiopia and Eritrea to call for restraint and de-escalation." They said the UK was coordinating with the African Union and the UN and referred to a UK statement of 14 October calling on "all parties to respect the sovereignty… of all countries in the region". The answers also noted £6.9 million of UK funding against violence against women and girls in conflict-affected parts of Ethiopia. As written answers, they have no transcript or video.
Image: The headquarters of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Chaoyang district, Beijing. WhisperToMe, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.