Escalating Rhetorical Battle Among Ethiopian Government and Eritrean Government Sparks Concerns of Conflict

Increasing apprehensions have emerged about the chance of military engagement among Horn of Africa neighbours, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as hostile language has ratcheted up in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a intense verbal exchange.

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

Ties between the two countries have regularly been difficult. After a prolonged struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it landlocked.

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

Recent Statements from Ethiopian Leadership

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

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "addressed soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrean Response to the Threats

Amid persistent challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been confined to concise remarks on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for sea access labeling it "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of reclaiming lost territory.

The information ministry warned on 16 September that efforts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Activities on the Ground

So far, there are little evidence of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in the country, government media has broadcast graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The director of human resources department of the military, the officer, stated recently in an interview that the army was in a "secure situation" as "many thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Previous Background of the Tension

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, Eritrea was administered by Italian colonisers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British military before turning into a federated part of Ethiopia.

Yet in 1962 the ruler ended this system and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year civil war followed, ending with military reversal in 1991. Sovereignty was then confirmed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, leading to conflict in 1998.

Even though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors continued at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a announcement that the war was finished – a move that gained the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

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

Yet diplomatic connections have since broken down anew.