🔗 Share this article

Mounting apprehensions exist over the potential of armed conflict involving East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational discourse has escalated in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for access to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has triggered a fierce rhetorical conflict.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in the previous year that his country's access to the sea was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Relations between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. After a decades-long battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a extensive maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a territorial conflict erupted in which more than 100,000 people died.

Current Comments from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and hinted at the intention to take it by force.

Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of losing entry to the sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "addressed soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "by force".

Eritrean Reaction to the Statements

Despite continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to concise remarks on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea calling it "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a approach of claiming back former lands.

Eritrean authorities cautioned 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".

Military Movements on the Region

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

Nevertheless, in the country, national TV has broadcast completion events of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The director of staff section of the military, the officer, stated recently in an interview that the military was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Historical Background of the Conflict

For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was ruled by colonial powers.

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

However in the early 1960s the ruler terminated this system and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year internal conflict followed, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Independence was then approved by the population in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the exact location of their mutual frontier, causing war in 1998.

Although this finished in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors remained at odds.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President President Isaias. The two signed a statement that the war was over – a action that won the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then partners in Ethiopia's previous armed struggle in the northern region.

Yet relations have since broken down once more.