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.