🔗 Share this article

Growing apprehensions exist regarding the possibility of armed conflict among East African neighbors, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile language has intensified in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a fierce verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in the previous year that his nation's sea access was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Relations between the neighboring nations have often been tense. Following a long-standing battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, making it without sea access.

Subsequently, a border war broke out in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Latest Statements from Ethiopia's Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have directly stated ownership of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and hinted at the desire to seize it militarily.

In early September, the Prime Minister said the country's "error" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrea's Answer to the Statements

In the face of persistent threats from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been restricted to concise remarks on X from Communications Head the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea calling it "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a approach of reclaiming former lands.

Government spokespeople alerted on 16 September that efforts to validate "obvious provocation" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Ground

There have been few indications of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

Nevertheless, in the country, national TV has broadcast graduation ceremonies of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The head of human resources department of the military, the officer, recently said in an interview that the military was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Previous Roots of the Dispute

For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was administered by Italian rulers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the British military before turning into a federated part of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the ruler ended this system and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year civil war ensued, ending with the government's loss in 1991. Autonomy was then endorsed by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their common border, leading to conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries remained at odds.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a announcement that the conflict was finished – a move that won Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then partners in the country's 2020-2022 armed struggle in Tigray.

But ties have later worsened once more.