🔗 Share this article

Growing apprehensions exist about the chance of military engagement among East African neighbors, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational discourse has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a fierce verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in the previous year that his government's sea access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrea dismissed.

Relations between the both governments have regularly been difficult. After a prolonged struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

Subsequently, a territorial conflict started in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Recent Comments from Ethiopian Officials

Abiy and military leader the army commander have openly claimed control of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and suggested the wish to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "mistake" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "addressed tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "using武力".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Threats

Despite continuous threats from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been confined to brief comments on social media from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for sea access labeling it "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a policy of reclaiming former lands.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on recently that attempts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Preparations on the Region

Currently, there are little evidence of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the two countries.

However, in the country, national TV has shown graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The head of staff section of the defense force, General Hachalu, commented lately in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Historical Roots of the Dispute

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

After Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the British military before evolving into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

However in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor ended this arrangement and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A extended civil war occurred, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Autonomy was then confirmed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, causing war in 1998.

Though this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations stayed at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two endorsed a declaration that the war was over – a decision that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The both administrations were then allies in the country's previous civil war in Tigray.

However ties have since broken down once more.