🔗 Share this article

Growing apprehensions have emerged over the chance of military engagement between Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile discourse has ratcheted up in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has provoked a intense war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in 2023 that his government's maritime access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrea dismissed.

Relations between the two countries have often been tense. Following a long-standing struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopia in 1993, making it landlocked.

Five years later, a territorial conflict started in which numerous people were killed.

Current Statements from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's coastal city of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the intention to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "error" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "addressed in the future".

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

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

Amid continuous warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to short statements on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for sea access describing it as "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a policy of claiming back former lands.

The information ministry cautioned on mid-September that moves to validate "obvious provocation" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Region

There have been no reports of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has displayed graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The head of staff section of the military, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an conversation that the army was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Historical Origins of the Dispute

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, Eritrea was ruled by Italian rulers.

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

However in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this system and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long armed struggle occurred, ending with military reversal in the early 1990s. Independence was then approved by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their common border, leading to war in 1998.

Though this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations continued at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders signed a statement that the conflict was over – a decision that gained Abiy the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in Ethiopia's previous internal conflict in Tigray.

However ties have since broken down again.