🔗 Share this article

Increasing worries exist regarding the potential of military engagement between East African countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has intensified in the last month.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for access to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a fierce war of words.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in last year that his nation's access to the sea was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrea ignored.

Relations between the two countries have frequently been strained. Following a prolonged battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it without sea access.

Subsequently, a territorial conflict started in which over a hundred thousand people were killed.

Current Comments from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and hinted at the wish to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of losing access to the sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "addressed tomorrow".

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

Eritrean Reaction to the Claims

Amid continuous threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to concise remarks on X from Information Minister Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea calling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of reclaiming former lands.

Government spokespeople cautioned on mid-September that attempts to validate "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Region

So far, there are no reports of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the neighboring states.

However, in the country, national TV has displayed training completions of numerous trainees at multiple army bases.

The leader of human resources department of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an interview that the military was in a "secure situation" as "many thousands of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Historical Roots of the Conflict

For over fifty years from 1890, the territory was administered by colonial powers.

After World War II, it was then managed by the UK forces before evolving into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this agreement and Eritrea became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long internal conflict followed, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Independence was then approved by Eritreans in a vote in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their common border, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Even though this ended in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors stayed at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President President Isaias. The two endorsed a statement that the war was over – a move that won Abiy the prestigious award.

The two governments were then cooperators in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 armed struggle in Tigray.

Yet diplomatic connections have since broken down again.