🔗 Share this article

Growing apprehensions are present over the possibility of armed conflict among Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive rhetoric has ratcheted up in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a intense verbal exchange.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in last year that his nation's maritime access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrea dismissed.

Ties between the both governments have frequently been strained. Following a prolonged battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it without sea access.

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

Latest Remarks from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and hinted at the wish to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said the country's "blunder" of being denied passage to the sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "rectified soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "using武力".

Eritrean Answer to the Threats

Despite continuous threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to short statements on X from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry describing it as "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a strategy of claiming back lost territory.

The information ministry cautioned on recently that attempts to validate "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Region

Currently, there are no reports of major military movements in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

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

The head of staff section of the armed forces, the officer, recently said in an interview that the military was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Previous Background of the Conflict

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, the territory was ruled by colonial powers.

Following World War II, it was then administered by the British military before turning into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

However in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor terminated this system and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long civil war followed, finishing with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then endorsed by voters in a referendum in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, leading to conflict in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors continued at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The two agreed to a announcement that the hostilities was over – a decision that won the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in Ethiopia's recent civil war in Tigray.

But relations have later worsened once more.