🔗 Share this article

Growing worries exist regarding the chance of armed conflict between Horn of Africa neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as aggressive language has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has sparked a heated verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in last year that his nation's access to the sea was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrea rejected.

Relations between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a long-standing fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a territorial conflict broke out in which numerous people died.

Current Remarks from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and implied the wish to take it by force.

On 1 September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea secession would be "addressed soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrea's Response to the Claims

In the face of continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to brief comments on X from Communications Head the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry calling it "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a approach of retaking former lands.

Government spokespeople warned on 16 September that attempts to justify "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Activities on the Region

So far, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has displayed graduation ceremonies of many recruits at various military training camps.

The head of staff section of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an conversation that the military was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Past Roots of the Dispute

For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was administered by colonial powers.

After World War II, it was then administered by the British administration before becoming a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

However in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this agreement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year armed struggle occurred, concluding with military reversal in 1991. Autonomy was then endorsed by voters in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, leading to war in 1998.

Though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors stayed at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President President Isaias. The both leaders agreed to a declaration that the war was concluded – a decision that gained Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then allies in the country's 2020-2022 civil war in the northern region.

However relations have later worsened again.