Ethiopia's government announced Thursday that it would close its embassy in Asmara, the Eritrean capital [E3]. The same day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared ten Eritrean diplomats in Addis Ababa, including the charge d'affaires and others accredited to the African Union, "persona non grata for involvement in activities that pose a direct threat to Ethiopia's national security", and required them to leave within 48 hours [E2], a clock Xinhua independently recorded from the ministry in an Addis dispatch dated 1 October [E4].
The expulsion clock sits on the ten still in Addis Ababa, not on the mission in Asmara. Thursday's Xinhua dispatch records an announced decision to close that embassy, not a confirmed emptying of the premises [E3][E2].
Eritrea said it is breaking diplomatic ties with Ethiopia in response to the expulsion of diplomats from Addis Ababa, as fighting between Ethiopia's federal forces and a coalition of armed opposition groups intensifies [E1]. The coalition is unnamed in that sentence. The rupture is written as a reply to the expulsion, not as the first move [E1][E2].
Al Jazeera and Xinhua do not lead with the same act. Al Jazeera opens on Eritrea's break and on the fighting [E1]. Xinhua opens on Thursday's embassy decision and does not name the charge d'affaires, the African Union accreditation, or the national-security clause [E3][E4].
The call is 0.68 that the ten diplomats leave Ethiopia by 21:00 UTC on 3 October 2026, the outer bound of a Thursday-plus-48-hours clock. A captured statement from Ethiopia's or Eritrea's foreign ministry, Al Jazeera or Xinhua that those diplomats have left, or that the expulsion has been completed, settles yes. The same sources saying they remain after that hour, or that the order was stayed or withdrawn, settles no. Thursday's 48-hour instruction is the clock, not proof it has been met [E2][E4]. The other reading is that an order and a reciprocal break can empty the missions on paper while the ten remain; a named departure, not the order, is the fact that has to be shown [E1][E2].