🔗 Share this article

Increasing worries have emerged regarding the possibility of armed conflict involving Horn of Africa neighbors, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has escalated in the last month.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for access to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has sparked a heated verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in 2023 that his nation's maritime access was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Ties between the both governments have regularly been difficult. After a long-standing struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a extensive sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in 1993, making it landlocked.

Subsequently, a military clash started in which numerous people lost their lives.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrean maritime facility of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and implied the wish to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing entry to the sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrean Answer to the Threats

Amid ongoing challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been limited to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea describing it as "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a strategy of retaking former lands.

The information ministry warned on 16 September that attempts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Border

Currently, there are little evidence of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has shown training completions of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The director of personnel division of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an conversation that the army was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Past Roots of the Dispute

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

After Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the British military before evolving into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

However in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this agreement and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long armed struggle ensued, ending with the government's loss in 1991. Independence was then confirmed by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their common border, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Even though this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors stayed at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two endorsed a announcement that the war was finished – a action that gained Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

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

However ties have since broken down once more.