🔗 Share this article

Growing concerns are present regarding the chance of armed conflict among East African neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational language has escalated in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has triggered a fierce war of words.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in last year that his country's access to the sea was an vital issue, comments that Eritrea rejected.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have often been tense. After a prolonged struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, making it landlocked.

Five years later, a military clash started in which more than 100,000 people died.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the intention to take it by force.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said the country's "error" of being denied passage to the sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "rectified soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Statements

Despite ongoing challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been restricted to short statements on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry calling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a approach of reclaiming lost territory.

Government spokespeople alerted on 16 September that attempts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Region

Currently, there are no reports of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

However, in Ethiopia, government media has broadcast training completions of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The leader of personnel division of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an conversation that the army was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Previous Roots of the Dispute

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

After Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the UK forces before evolving into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor ended this system and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year civil war followed, ending with the government's loss in 1991. Autonomy was then confirmed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors continued at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders agreed to a announcement that the conflict was concluded – a decision that gained Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 civil war in the northern region.

Yet diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated again.