Ethiopia has not said what Ahmed Moharam Ahmed Soliman did. It only told him to leave.
The Foreign Ministry in Addis Ababa declared the Egyptian diplomat persona non grata late on Thursday and gave him 48 hours to go, escalating the Egypt-Ethiopia diplomatic row. Its notification to the Egyptian Embassy, published by the state-run Ethiopian News Agency, cited the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. It named no offence.
Cairo answered within hours. By Friday, a counsellor at the Ethiopian Embassy in Egypt had been declared persona non grata too, on the same 48-hour clock. The diplomatic row now had two diplomats packing.
Egyptian state media quoted an unnamed senior source who called Ethiopia’s move “unfortunate and unjustified”. Foreign ministry spokesperson Nader Zaki told Reuters that Egypt’s response in the Egypt-Ethiopia diplomatic row was justified. “Reciprocity is the currency of diplomacy,” he said.
That is the official line. The timing tells you more.
On Thursday, Ethiopia had also closed its embassy in Asmara and ordered ten Eritrean diplomats out. Eritrea cut all diplomatic ties in return, Reuters reported. That wiped out the 2018 thaw that won Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed his Nobel Peace Prize.
Behind the diplomatic confrontation is a war at home. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front and six other armed groups have formed an alliance to remove Abiy. Tigrayan forces launched an offensive on 23 September and seized three airports. Reuters reported that three diplomats said explosions were heard in Addis Ababa overnight, though the reports could not be independently verified.
Ethiopia’s army chief, Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, said on Sunday that the fighters could not make gains unless Sudan, Egypt and other outside powers armed and supplied them. He offered no evidence. Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea deny it.
So the Egypt-Ethiopia diplomatic row did not begin with one diplomat’s name on one piece of paper. It began with an accusation.
Cairo insists it wants no part in Ethiopia’s quarrels. Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told a meeting chaired by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi that Egypt had “no hostility” towards Ethiopia, The National reported. At the same meeting, he said Egypt must double its share of the Nile, not merely protect it.
The comment underscored how security tensions and the long-running Nile dispute have become increasingly intertwined.
That is a big ask of an upstream neighbour. Egypt’s share is 55.5 billion cubic metres a year. Its water minister puts the need at about 123 billion.
The water explains why the Egypt-Ethiopia diplomatic row cuts so deep. Ethiopia inaugurated the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile in September 2025. It says the dam is for power and growth. Egypt calls it a threat to its water supply.
In August, Ethiopia’s Water and Energy Minister, Habtamu Itefa, confirmed plans for three more dams. Cairo says it will not accept them.
Both 48-hour deadlines expire this weekend. Whether the Egypt-Ethiopia diplomatic row stops at one diplomat each is now the question.
The African Union Commission, which sits in Addis Ababa, has urged Ethiopia, Eritrea and Egypt to show “maximum restraint” and keep talking through diplomatic channels.
What nobody has put on the table is proof. Ethiopia has not explained its case against the Egyptian diplomat. Egypt has offered reciprocity and little else. Until someone shows evidence, the Egypt-Ethiopia diplomatic row reads like a message rather than a case.
A diplomat can pack in 48 hours. The issues that brought Egypt and Ethiopia to this point will remain long after the flight departs.
