🔗 Share this article

Mounting concerns have emerged regarding the potential of armed conflict between East African neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational language has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Stated?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for access to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has triggered a fierce war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in 2023 that his nation's access to the sea was an vital issue, statements that Eritrea ignored.

Ties between the both governments have frequently been strained. After a long-standing fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a long maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it landlocked.

Five years later, a border war erupted in which numerous people died.

Recent Remarks from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the intention to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "rectified in the future".

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

Eritrean Answer to the Threats

Despite ongoing warnings from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been limited to brief comments on X from Information Minister Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for sea access calling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a approach of claiming back former lands.

The information ministry alerted on recently that moves to validate "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Activities on the Border

There have been no reports of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in the country, government media has broadcast completion events of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The director of human resources department of the defense force, the officer, stated recently in an conversation that the army was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Historical Roots of the Conflict

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, the territory was administered by Italian rulers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the British administration before evolving into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor ended this system and Eritrea became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year civil war followed, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Sovereignty was then endorsed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the exact location of their shared boundary, leading to conflict in 1998.

Although this concluded in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries continued at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders endorsed a announcement that the hostilities was over – a decision that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

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

Yet ties have since broken down once more.