Escalating Verbal Conflict Involving Ethiopian Government and Eritrea Raises Anxieties of Conflict

Growing concerns are present over the potential of warfare between Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile language has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for access to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has provoked a fierce rhetorical conflict.

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in last year that his government's sea access was an vital issue, statements that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Diplomatic connections between the both governments have regularly been difficult. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a military clash started in which numerous people were killed.

Recent Comments from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the wish to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "corrected tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Claims

In the face of persistent threats from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been confined to concise remarks on X from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for sea access calling it "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a policy of retaking former lands.

Eritrean authorities alerted on mid-September that attempts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Region

There have been no reports of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has shown graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The leader of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, stated recently in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "many thousands of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Past Roots of the Dispute

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, Eritrea was ruled by colonial powers.

After World War II, it was then controlled by the British administration before turning into a federated part of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A extended internal conflict occurred, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then approved by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they disagreed over the exact location of their mutual frontier, leading to hostilities in 1998.

Even though this ended in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations remained at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders agreed to a statement that the conflict was concluded – a decision that gained Abiy the prestigious award.

The two governments were then partners in the country's recent internal conflict in Tigray.

However relations have later worsened anew.