🔗 Share this article

Mounting concerns have emerged regarding the chance of armed conflict between Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive discourse has ratcheted up in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has sparked a intense rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in 2023 that his country's maritime access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrea ignored.

Ties between the both governments have often been tense. Following a prolonged struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a extensive maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, making it without sea access.

Subsequently, a military clash erupted in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopia's Government

Abiy and military leader the army commander have openly claimed control of Eritrea's maritime facility of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and hinted at the intention to capture it through military means.

Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of losing entry to the sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "rectified soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "through military action".

Eritrea's Answer to the Claims

Despite continuous challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been confined to brief comments on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for sea access calling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a policy of retaking former lands.

Government spokespeople alerted on mid-September that efforts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Ground

So far, there are no reports of major military movements in the boundary zones between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, government media has broadcast completion events of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The head of human resources department of the defense force, General Hachalu, recently said in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Past Origins of the Dispute

For decades from 1890, Eritrea was ruled by Italian rulers.

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

Yet in the early 1960s the ruler cancelled this arrangement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict ensued, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then confirmed by voters in a referendum in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their common border, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Although this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations continued at odds.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrean President President Isaias. The two endorsed a announcement that the hostilities was concluded – a move that earned Abiy the prestigious award.

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

However diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated anew.