🔗 Share this article

Increasing worries are present regarding the possibility of armed conflict between East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile discourse has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Has Ethiopia Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has sparked a fierce war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in the previous year that his nation's access to the sea was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrea ignored.

Ties between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. Following a long-standing struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it without sea access.

In 1998, a territorial conflict broke out in which over a hundred thousand people were killed.

Current Statements from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrean southern port of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and implied the desire to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of losing access to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "rectified tomorrow".

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

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

Amid persistent challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been confined to concise remarks on X from Communications Head Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for maritime entry labeling it "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a policy of claiming back previous domains.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on recently that attempts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Ground

There have been no reports of major military movements in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

However, in Ethiopia, national TV has displayed completion events of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The director of human resources department of the military, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an discussion that the army was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Past Roots of the Tension

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, Eritrea was administered by Italian colonisers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British administration before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

Yet in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this system and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A extended civil war occurred, ending with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then approved by voters in a vote in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they disagreed over the exact location of their mutual frontier, leading to war in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors continued at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a declaration that the conflict was concluded – a decision that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then partners in Ethiopia's previous internal conflict in the northern region.

However diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated anew.