🔗 Share this article

Growing concerns exist regarding the chance of armed conflict involving Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile discourse has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for entry to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has provoked a intense verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in last year that his government's sea access was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrea rejected.

Ties between the two countries have frequently been strained. Following a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it without sea access.

Five years later, a border war started in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Recent Remarks from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and implied the intention to seize it militarily.

In early September, the Prime Minister said the country's "error" of losing entry to the Red 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 given back "by force".

Eritrean Reaction to the Claims

Amid ongoing challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been limited to concise remarks on social media from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for maritime entry describing it as "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a policy of retaking former lands.

Government spokespeople cautioned on recently that efforts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Border

Currently, there are no reports of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the both nations.

However, in the country, state television has displayed graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The head of human resources department of the armed forces, the officer, recently said in an discussion that the army was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Previous Roots of the Conflict

For decades from 1890, Eritrea was ruled by Italian rulers.

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

However in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this system and Eritrea became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A extended armed struggle occurred, ending with military reversal in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then approved by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they fell out over the exact location of their common border, resulting in war in 1998.

Although this ended in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors remained at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders endorsed a announcement that the war was over – a move that won Abiy the international recognition.

The both administrations were then partners in the country's 2020-2022 civil war in Tigray.

Yet ties have since broken down once more.