I was playing a game where I was allied with 2 of the 3 aliens left alive. I then got a random event where an altarian diplomat (the race I wasn't allied with) was killed on my home planet, so they declared they would get vengance against me, and declared war. A whole load of ships called vengance appeared as well on the altarian side, luckily they were wimpy.
The bug was that my allies didn't attack the altarians. Which seems odd since I thought that was what allies did when someone declared war on you. presumably its cos the war was caused by a special event, but I'd still say that I was declared upon and therfore should have my allies back me up.