English By Salem Solomon Share on Facebook Print this page Reports this week of a senior Ethiopian military official’s comments that security forces from neighboring Eritrea entered the fray in the northern Tigray region backed what U.S. officials and outside observers have been saying for weeks based on satellite evidence. “The truth of the matter is that many of us knew from day one the involvement of Eritrea. And the involvement of Eritrea was not a unilateral involvement,” said Awet Weldemichael, a professor of history and global development studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. “This looks systematic,” Awet told VOA, contradicting the Ethiopian government’s stance that Eritrean troops entered the region without an invitation. “The federal government in Addis Ababa seems to be trying to find ways to ease the pressure on itself. None of this massive involvement can happen without proper planning, coordination. And that happens with an open invitation — not only the invitation, but active collaboration staged by the prime minister of Ethiopia and the president of Eritrea, then carried out by their respective senior-most generals.”