🔗 Share this article

Growing concerns are present over the chance of military engagement among East African neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile rhetoric has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

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

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in the previous year that his nation's access to the sea was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the both governments have often been tense. Following a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a long sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it landlocked.

Subsequently, a military clash started in which more than 100,000 people died.

Recent Comments from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and suggested the wish to capture it through military means.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing entry to the sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "addressed tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrean Response to the Claims

In the face of persistent warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to concise remarks on social media from Communications Head the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea labeling it "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "expansionism" – a policy of reclaiming former lands.

Government spokespeople warned on recently that attempts to justify "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Border

Currently, there are no reports of major military movements in the boundary zones between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, state television has shown completion events of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The director of staff section of the military, General Hachalu, recently said in an conversation that the army was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Historical Origins of the Conflict

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

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British administration before turning into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

However in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this agreement and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A extended armed struggle followed, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty 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 exact location of their shared boundary, leading to hostilities in 1998.

Though this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries remained at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrean President the president. The both leaders endorsed a announcement that the war was finished – a move that won Abiy the international recognition.

The both administrations were then allies in the country's previous civil war in the northern region.

But ties have later worsened once more.