🔗 Share this article

Mounting apprehensions have emerged about the chance of military engagement between East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as aggressive discourse has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for entry to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has sparked a intense rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in last year that his nation's sea access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Ties between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. Following a long-standing battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, rendering it landlocked.

In 1998, a border war erupted in which numerous people died.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and army chief the army commander have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrean maritime facility of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and hinted at the desire to capture it through military means.

In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing entry to the sea as a result 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 returned "by force".

Eritrean Response to the Statements

In the face of persistent warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to concise remarks on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for sea access calling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a policy of retaking lost territory.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on mid-September that efforts to justify "obvious provocation" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Border

Currently, there are no reports of large-scale army activities in the boundary zones between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in the country, government media has broadcast training completions of many recruits at various military training camps.

The leader of personnel division of the military, the officer, recently said in an interview that the army was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Past Background of the Tension

For decades from the late 19th century, the territory was administered by Italian rulers.

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

Yet in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor terminated this agreement and the region became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year civil war ensued, concluding with the government's loss in 1991. Sovereignty was then endorsed by the population in a vote in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, causing conflict in 1998.

Even though this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the two nations continued at in dispute.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two endorsed a statement that the war was over – a decision that gained Abiy the international recognition.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's previous civil war in the northern region.

Yet relations have since broken down again.