🔗 Share this article

Mounting concerns have emerged about the possibility of armed conflict involving Horn of Africa neighbors, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile rhetoric has escalated in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

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

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in the previous year that his government's sea access was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a prolonged battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it cut off from the sea.

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

Latest Remarks from Ethiopia's Government

Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and hinted at the wish to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea secession would be "rectified tomorrow".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrean Answer to the Threats

Amid continuous challenges from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been restricted to short statements on social media from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea labeling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a strategy of reclaiming lost territory.

Government spokespeople cautioned on mid-September that moves to justify "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Region

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

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has broadcast training completions of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The director of staff section of the defense force, General Hachalu, 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".

Previous Background of the Dispute

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, the territory was ruled by Italian rulers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British military before becoming a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this agreement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war followed, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Autonomy was then endorsed by Eritreans in a vote in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, leading to war in 1998.

Though this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations stayed at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders agreed to a declaration that the hostilities was over – a decision that earned Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in the country's previous civil war in Tigray.

But diplomatic connections have later worsened anew.