🔗 Share this article

Increasing concerns are present about the chance of military engagement involving East African countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile discourse has intensified in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for access to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has provoked a fierce war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in last year that his country's sea access was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Ties between the both governments have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, rendering it without sea access.

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

Latest Comments from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed ownership of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and hinted at the wish to seize it militarily.

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

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

Eritrean Response to the Claims

Despite ongoing warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to short statements on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry calling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a approach of retaking previous domains.

Government spokespeople warned on recently that moves to validate "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Activities on the Border

So far, there are few indications of major military movements in the border areas between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has broadcast graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The director of human resources department of the defense force, General Hachalu, stated recently in an conversation that the military was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Past Roots of the Dispute

For decades from the late 19th century, Eritrea was administered by Italian colonisers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the UK forces before becoming a integrated region of Ethiopia.

Yet in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor terminated this system and Eritrea became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A extended internal conflict occurred, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then confirmed by voters in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, causing conflict in 1998.

Though this ended in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors stayed at odds.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President the president. The two endorsed a announcement that the war was concluded – a decision that gained the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The both administrations were then partners in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 internal conflict in Tigray.

But ties have later worsened anew.