🔗 Share this article

Mounting apprehensions exist over the potential of armed conflict between East African neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile rhetoric has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for access to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has sparked a fierce verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in the previous year that his nation's access to the sea was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Ties between the two countries have frequently been strained. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a extensive sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it landlocked.

In 1998, a territorial conflict broke out in which numerous people were killed.

Latest Comments from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and military leader the army commander have openly claimed control of Eritrean coastal city of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and suggested the desire to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrean Response to the Claims

Amid continuous threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been confined to concise remarks on X from Communications Head Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for sea access calling it "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a approach of reclaiming lost territory.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on 16 September that attempts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Movements on the Ground

There have been few indications of large-scale army activities in the boundary zones between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in the country, state television has broadcast graduation ceremonies of many recruits at various military training camps.

The head of human resources department of the military, the officer, stated recently in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "many thousands of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Previous Roots of the Conflict

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

After Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the British military before turning into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor terminated this system and the region became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long civil war ensued, ending with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then confirmed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the exact location of their common border, leading to war in 1998.

Although this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations continued at odds.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a statement that the hostilities was over – a decision that won Abiy the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then partners in the country's recent civil war in the northern region.

But ties have subsequently deteriorated again.