🔗 Share this article

Increasing apprehensions have emerged regarding the chance of warfare among East African countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has triggered a heated rhetorical conflict.

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in 2023 that his country's sea access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrea rejected.

Relations between the both governments have often been tense. Following a prolonged fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a border war broke out in which numerous people died.

Recent Comments from Ethiopia's Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and hinted at the desire to seize it militarily.

In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing entry to the sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "through military action".

Eritrean Response to the Statements

In the face of persistent threats from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been limited to brief comments on X from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry calling it "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a strategy of reclaiming lost territory.

Eritrean authorities warned on mid-September that efforts to justify "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Border

There have been little evidence of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the both nations.

However, in Ethiopia, government media has broadcast training completions of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The leader of human resources department of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an interview that the defense forces was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Past Origins of the Conflict

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, Eritrea was ruled by Italian rulers.

Following World War II, it was then administered by the UK forces before becoming a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

But in the early 1960s the ruler ended this system and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long internal conflict ensued, finishing with military reversal in 1991. Autonomy was then approved by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they fell out over the exact location of their common border, causing conflict in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors remained at odds.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrean President the president. The both leaders endorsed a statement that the war was finished – a action that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then allies in Ethiopia's recent internal conflict in Tigray.

Yet relations have later worsened again.