🔗 Share this article

Mounting worries have emerged about the chance of armed conflict among Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational language has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a heated rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in the previous year that his nation's sea access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrea dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the both governments have frequently been strained. After a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it without sea access.

In 1998, a border war started in which over a hundred thousand people were killed.

Current Statements from Ethiopian Leadership

Abiy and army chief the army commander have openly claimed ownership of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and implied the wish to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "addressed soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrean Reaction to the Claims

Despite ongoing threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to brief comments on social media from Information Minister the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for maritime entry labeling it "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a policy of retaking previous domains.

The information ministry cautioned on mid-September that attempts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Movements on the Ground

There have been little evidence of major military movements in the boundary zones between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, state television has displayed completion events of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The director of staff section of the military, the officer, recently said in an conversation that the army was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Historical Background of the Dispute

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

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British military before turning into a federated part of Ethiopia.

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

A extended armed struggle ensued, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Autonomy was then approved by the population in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they fell out over the exact location of their common border, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Though this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors remained at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrean President President Isaias. The two endorsed a statement that the hostilities was concluded – a move that won Abiy the international recognition.

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

However diplomatic connections have later worsened anew.