🔗 Share this article

Mounting concerns have emerged about the possibility of military engagement between Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile language has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has sparked a intense war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in 2023 that his nation's sea access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrea ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have often been tense. Following a prolonged struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a military clash started in which numerous people died.

Recent Statements from Ethiopia's Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed ownership of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and suggested the wish to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing access to the sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "corrected tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrean Answer to the Threats

In the face of persistent challenges from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been limited to short statements on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea calling it "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a policy of retaking lost territory.

Eritrean authorities warned on 16 September that efforts to justify "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Border

There have been little evidence of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in the country, national TV has shown completion events of numerous trainees at multiple army bases.

The director of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, commented lately in an conversation that the army was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Previous Origins of the Conflict

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, the territory was ruled by Italian rulers.

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

However in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor terminated this agreement and Eritrea became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year civil war followed, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Independence was then approved by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their common border, leading to war in 1998.

Though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations remained at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders agreed to a declaration that the hostilities was over – a move that won Abiy the international recognition.

The two governments were then cooperators in the country's previous internal conflict in Tigray.

Yet ties have since broken down anew.