🔗 Share this article

Mounting apprehensions have emerged regarding the possibility of warfare between East African neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational discourse has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for passage to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has sparked a heated verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in last year that his country's maritime access was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Ties between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. Following a decades-long battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it landlocked.

In 1998, a territorial conflict broke out in which numerous people lost their lives.

Latest Statements from Ethiopia's Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and suggested the wish to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "error" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "addressed tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrean Answer to the Claims

Despite ongoing warnings from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been confined to concise remarks on X from Information Minister the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for sea access labeling it "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a strategy of retaking former lands.

The information ministry cautioned on mid-September that efforts to justify "blatant hostility" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Ground

There have been no reports of major military movements in the border areas between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, state television has broadcast training completions of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The leader of personnel division of the military, General Hachalu, recently said in an conversation that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Previous Roots of the Tension

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, the territory was administered by Italian colonisers.

Following World War II, it was then administered by the British military before becoming a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this system and Eritrea became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year armed struggle ensued, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Autonomy was then confirmed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, causing conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors stayed at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a declaration that the conflict was concluded – a move that won the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The two governments were then partners in the country's 2020-2022 armed struggle in Tigray.

But diplomatic connections have later worsened once more.