🔗 Share this article

Increasing apprehensions are present over the possibility of military engagement involving East African neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as aggressive discourse has ratcheted up in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrea has triggered a fierce rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in the previous year that his country's access to the sea was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrea ignored.

Relations between the two countries have often been tense. Following a long-standing struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopia in 1993, leaving it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a military clash erupted in which more than 100,000 people died.

Latest Statements from Ethiopia's Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and suggested the wish to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing entry to the sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "rectified soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrean Reaction to the Statements

In the face of persistent warnings from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been limited to concise remarks on X from Information Minister the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea labeling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "expansionism" – a strategy of retaking lost territory.

The information ministry warned on 16 September that moves to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Border

There have been few indications of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, government media has broadcast training completions of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The head of staff section of the military, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an interview that the military was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Past Roots of the Tension

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, the territory was administered by Italian colonisers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the British administration before becoming a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

But in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor terminated this agreement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long internal conflict ensued, ending with the government's loss in 1991. Independence was then confirmed by the population in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, resulting in war in 1998.

Although this finished in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors remained at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a statement that the war was concluded – a move that earned the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The two governments were then cooperators in the country's previous civil war in the northern region.

Yet diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated once more.