🔗 Share this article

Increasing apprehensions exist regarding the possibility of armed conflict among East African neighbors, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as aggressive discourse has intensified in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has provoked a intense war of words.

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in 2023 that his country's maritime access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. After a prolonged fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a long maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopia in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

In 1998, a territorial conflict started in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Recent Statements from Ethiopian Leadership

Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed ownership of Eritrean maritime facility of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the wish to seize it militarily.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "corrected in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrea's Response to the Statements

In the face of ongoing challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to short statements on social media from Communications Head Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for maritime entry calling it "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a policy of claiming back former lands.

Government spokespeople alerted on 16 September that moves to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Region

Currently, there are few indications of major military movements in the boundary zones between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, government media has shown completion events of numerous trainees at multiple army bases.

The head of human resources department of the military, General Hachalu, recently said in an conversation that the military was in a "strong stance" as "many thousands of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Past Origins of the Conflict

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, Eritrea was governed by colonial powers.

After Italy's defeat, it was then administered by the British administration before turning into a associated territory of Ethiopia.

However in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this system and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict followed, concluding with military reversal in 1991. Sovereignty was then endorsed by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, causing conflict in 1998.

Even though this ended in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries stayed at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President President Isaias. The both leaders signed a announcement that the war was finished – a move that won the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's recent armed struggle in Tigray.

Yet ties have later worsened once more.