Rising Rhetorical Battle Involving Ethiopian Government and Eritrean Government Triggers Fears of Conflict

Increasing apprehensions have emerged about the potential of warfare involving East African neighbors, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive language has intensified in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has provoked a heated rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in the previous year that his government's sea access was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrea ignored.

Relations between the two countries have often been tense. Following a prolonged fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a extensive sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, rendering it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a territorial conflict started in which more than 100,000 people died.

Latest Comments from Ethiopian Officials

Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and implied the desire to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea secession would be "corrected soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Claims

In the face of persistent warnings from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been limited to short statements on online platforms from Communications Head the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea calling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a policy of reclaiming former lands.

Eritrean authorities warned on mid-September that attempts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Border

Currently, there are no reports of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in the country, national TV has broadcast graduation ceremonies of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The director of staff section of the military, General Hachalu, stated recently in an interview that the army was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of youths" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Previous Background of the Dispute

For decades from the late 19th century, the territory was governed by Italian rulers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the UK forces before evolving into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this arrangement and Eritrea became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long civil war occurred, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then endorsed by the population in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the exact location of their common border, leading to hostilities in 1998.

Though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries stayed at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders agreed to a announcement that the hostilities was over – a decision that gained the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's previous internal conflict in the northern region.

But diplomatic connections have later worsened once more.