🔗 Share this article

Growing concerns have emerged regarding the chance of armed conflict among East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as aggressive rhetoric has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has triggered a heated verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in the previous year that his government's access to the sea was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Relations between the two countries have often been tense. After a long-standing battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a long sea border, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

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

Latest Comments from Ethiopia's Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted control of Eritrea's maritime facility of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and hinted at the wish to take it by force.

In early September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Threats

In the face of continuous warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to concise remarks on X from Communications Head the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for sea access calling it "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of claiming back former lands.

Government spokespeople cautioned on mid-September that moves to validate "obvious provocation" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Preparations on the Region

Currently, there are few indications of major military movements in the boundary zones between the neighboring states.

However, in the country, state television has broadcast completion events of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The director of staff section of the defense force, General Hachalu, stated recently in an discussion that the army was in a "strong stance" as "many thousands of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Past Background of the Conflict

For over fifty years from 1890, Eritrea was ruled by Italian colonisers.

After Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the British military before turning into a associated territory of Ethiopia.

But in 1962 the ruler cancelled this arrangement and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A extended civil war followed, finishing with military reversal in 1991. Independence was then approved by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their common border, causing conflict in 1998.

Even though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries continued at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders signed a statement that the war was concluded – a decision that earned Abiy the prestigious award.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's recent civil war in Tigray.

Yet relations have since broken down again.