🔗 Share this article

Increasing worries have emerged regarding the chance of warfare involving East African countries, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as confrontational language has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has triggered a heated verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in 2023 that his country's access to the sea was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have often been tense. Following a prolonged struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a military clash erupted in which numerous people died.

Current Remarks from Ethiopia's Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and suggested the wish to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea secession would be "addressed soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrean Reaction to the Threats

In the face of ongoing warnings from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been limited to concise remarks on X from Information Minister Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for maritime entry labeling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of claiming back lost territory.

Eritrean authorities warned on 16 September that efforts to validate "blatant hostility" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Border

There have been little evidence of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has broadcast graduation ceremonies of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The leader of human resources department of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an interview that the military was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Historical Origins of the Dispute

For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was governed by colonial powers.

After World War II, it was then administered by the UK forces before becoming a federated part of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this agreement and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long armed struggle ensued, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then confirmed by Eritreans in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they clashed over the exact location of their mutual frontier, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors continued at odds.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders signed a announcement that the conflict was over – a move that gained Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then partners in Ethiopia's previous armed struggle in the northern region.

Yet relations have later worsened again.