🔗 Share this article

Mounting worries have emerged about the potential of warfare between Horn of Africa neighbours, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as aggressive language has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Stated?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has sparked a heated rhetorical conflict.

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in last year that his country's access to the sea was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Ties between the two countries have regularly been difficult. After a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it cut off from the sea.

Subsequently, a border war started in which numerous people lost their lives.

Current Remarks from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have directly stated control of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and implied the desire to take it by force.

In early September, the Prime Minister said the country's "blunder" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "addressed soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrean Response to the Statements

Amid ongoing warnings from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been confined to short statements on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for sea access labeling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a strategy of reclaiming lost territory.

Eritrean authorities warned on mid-September that moves to justify "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Activities on the Border

Currently, there are no reports of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the two countries.

However, in Ethiopia, state television has shown graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The head of human resources department of the armed forces, the officer, recently said in an discussion that the army was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Historical Origins of the Tension

For over fifty years from 1890, Eritrea was administered by Italian rulers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the British military before evolving into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long internal conflict ensued, finishing with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then approved by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their common border, leading to war in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors continued at in dispute.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrean President President Isaias. The two signed a announcement that the conflict was concluded – a decision that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

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

But ties have subsequently deteriorated once more.