🔗 Share this article

Increasing apprehensions are present about the potential of armed conflict involving East African countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational discourse has escalated in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

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

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in 2023 that his nation's sea access was an vital issue, statements that Eritrea dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have often been tense. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a military clash erupted in which numerous people lost their lives.

Recent Remarks from Ethiopia's Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the intention to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "error" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "rectified soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrean Answer to the Threats

Amid continuous threats from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been confined to brief comments on X from Information Minister the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for sea access calling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a strategy of retaking lost territory.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on 16 September that moves to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Ground

Currently, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the both nations.

However, in the country, national TV has displayed training completions of many recruits at various military training camps.

The director of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, commented lately in an conversation that the army was in a "secure situation" as "many thousands of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Historical Origins of the Dispute

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

After World War II, it was then managed by the British military before becoming a associated territory of Ethiopia.

Yet in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this system and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long armed struggle occurred, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Independence was then approved by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their common border, causing hostilities in 1998.

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

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders agreed to a statement that the hostilities was over – a move that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then cooperators in the country's previous internal conflict in Tigray.

But relations have subsequently deteriorated once more.