Did Ethiopian forces cross into Eritrea and take Daba Sima, near Assab, on 11 October?

What was claimed

On 12 October, UMD Media published a report headlined “Reports: Ethiopian Forces Cross into Eritrea, Take Control of Strategic Locality Near Assab Following Mechanized Fighting” A.

According to the report, Ethiopian troops crossed into Eritrean territory at about 5pm on Sunday 11 October, after “mechanized fighting near the Bure front”. Eritrean forces “reportedly fled”, and the Ethiopians took control of Daba Sima, a village in Eritrea’s Southern Denkalya subregion about 50 km from the port of Assab A.

If it were true, it would be the first reported Ethiopian ground attack inside Eritrea in the current escalation, as UMD Media itself notes, and a step towards the port that Eritrea has long accused Ethiopia of planning to seize.

Where the claim comes from

The report has a single source: an unnamed “source close to Ethiopian federal government” A. UMD Media says it spoke with sources “on both the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrean sides”, but it quotes no Eritrean account of the fighting. It also says plainly that it “has not independently verified the reported territorial advance, the withdrawal of Eritrean forces, or the extent of casualties” A.

Within a day the claim had spread. The Europe External Programme with Africa (EEPA), whose situation reports are widely read by diplomats and researchers, repeated it “according to unverified reports”, linking to UMD Media C. Wikipedia’s article on the offensive repeats it with the same attribution D. Neither adds a second source. One anonymous source has become three citations.

What the outlet reported next

Later on 12 October, UMD Media published a second report. Local sources in Afar’s Elidar woreda, which includes Bure, the border town nearest Daba Sima, “dismissed” the earlier report. They said Ethiopian mechanised forces “are not even close to the Bure frontline itself” B.

UMD Media did not withdraw or update its first report. Both are online, and both are anonymous.

What we checked

Daba Sima is a real place. Gazetteers place it in Eritrea’s Southern Denkalya subregion, close to the border with Ethiopia’s Afar region E. By our measurement it is roughly 55 km from Assab in a straight line, consistent with UMD Media’s figure.

We looked for any confirmation of an Ethiopian crossing there, or anywhere else into Eritrea, from Reuters, the Associated Press, AFP, the BBC, the conflict monitor ACLED, the United Nations, or either government. We found none. Ethiopia has not claimed any operation inside Eritrea. Eritrea, which has complained to the UN Security Council about Ethiopian “acts of war”, has not reported one either. If Ethiopian troops had occupied Eritrean territory, Eritrea would have every reason to say so.

Our verdict

False. The only account of a crossing comes from one unnamed source close to Ethiopia’s government, and the outlet that published it says it has not verified it. The only accounts from the area, local sources in Afar reported by the same outlet, say Ethiopian forces were not even near the frontline. Neither government has reported fighting inside Eritrea, and no news agency or conflict monitor has recorded a capture of Daba Sima. Everything available points the same way: the capture did not happen as reported. If evidence emerges, we will review this fact check.

Update, 13 October 2026

We changed this verdict from Unsupported to False after a further editorial review. The evidence is unchanged. We concluded that the local accounts reported by UMD Media, together with the absence of any confirmation from either government or any independent source, contradict the claim rather than leave it open. The change is listed in our corrections log.