🔗 Share this article

Increasing worries have emerged regarding the potential of warfare involving Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile language has intensified in the last month.

What Has Ethiopia Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for access to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has provoked a heated rhetorical conflict.

The Ethiopian leader initially stated publicly in last year that his country's access to the sea was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrea dismissed.

Ties between the neighboring nations have often been tense. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

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

Recent Statements from Ethiopia's Leadership

Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and suggested the intention to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "error" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "corrected in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

Amid continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to concise remarks on X from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for sea access calling it "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a approach of retaking previous domains.

Eritrean authorities warned on recently that moves to validate "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Region

There have been few indications of major military movements in the border areas between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in the country, national TV has shown training completions of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The head of human resources department of the defense force, General Hachalu, recently said in an discussion that the military was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Previous Background of the Dispute

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

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the UK forces before becoming a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

However in 1962 the ruler cancelled this system and the region became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A extended internal conflict followed, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Autonomy was then confirmed by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they fell out over the exact location of their mutual frontier, leading to conflict in 1998.

Even though this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors stayed at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders agreed to a announcement that the hostilities was finished – a decision that won the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then cooperators in the country's previous internal conflict in Tigray.

Yet diplomatic connections have since broken down again.