Escalating Verbal Conflict Between Ethiopia and Eritrea Sparks Concerns of Armed Clash

Mounting worries are present about the potential of armed conflict among Horn of Africa neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as aggressive language has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrea has triggered a heated verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in last year that his country's sea access was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrea ignored.

Ties between the two countries have often been tense. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, rendering it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a territorial conflict broke out in which numerous people lost their lives.

Current Comments from Ethiopian Officials

Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and suggested the intention to capture it through military means.

Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected tomorrow".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrea's Answer to the Claims

Despite continuous challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been limited to concise remarks on social media from Communications Head Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for sea access calling it "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of reclaiming former lands.

Government spokespeople alerted on recently that attempts to validate "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Ground

So far, there are no reports of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

However, in Ethiopia, government media has displayed graduation ceremonies of many recruits at various military training camps.

The director of human resources department of the defense force, General Hachalu, recently said in an conversation that the army was in a "secure situation" as "many thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Past Background of the Conflict

For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was ruled by Italian colonisers.

After Italy's defeat, it was then administered by the British military before becoming a associated territory of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this arrangement and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long internal conflict occurred, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Autonomy was then endorsed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the exact location of their mutual frontier, causing hostilities in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the two nations stayed at odds.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders agreed to a statement that the war was concluded – a action that won Abiy the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then partners in the country's recent internal conflict in the northern region.

But ties have subsequently deteriorated once more.