🔗 Share this article

Mounting apprehensions have emerged over the potential of military engagement between Horn of Africa neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as aggressive discourse has escalated in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrea has triggered a intense verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in 2023 that his country's access to the sea was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have frequently been strained. After a prolonged battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it landlocked.

Subsequently, a territorial conflict broke out in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have openly claimed control of Eritrean maritime facility of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and implied the wish to capture it through military means.

In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "addressed tomorrow".

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

Eritrea's Reaction to the Claims

Despite ongoing warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to short statements on social media from Communications Head the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for sea access labeling it "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a policy of retaking lost territory.

The information ministry warned on recently that moves to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Border

So far, there are no reports of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in the country, national TV has broadcast completion events of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The director of personnel division of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an interview that the army was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of youths" were entering service, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Previous Background of the Conflict

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, Eritrea was administered by Italian colonisers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the British military before turning into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s the ruler cancelled this arrangement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A extended internal conflict ensued, finishing with the government's loss in 1991. Autonomy was then approved by the population in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, leading to conflict in 1998.

Though this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries remained at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrean President President Isaias. The both leaders agreed to a declaration that the war was finished – a move that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then cooperators in Ethiopia's previous civil war in Tigray.

But diplomatic connections have since broken down again.