Rising Rhetorical Battle Among Ethiopian Government and Eritrean Government Sparks Concerns of Armed Clash

Increasing concerns exist about the potential of military engagement involving Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive discourse has escalated in the last month.

What Has Ethiopia Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a intense war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in last year that his nation's sea access was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrea ignored.

Relations between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. Following a prolonged fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

Subsequently, a border war started in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Current Remarks from Ethiopian Leadership

Abiy and military leader the army commander have openly claimed ownership of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the intention to capture it through military means.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrea's Answer to the Statements

Amid ongoing warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to brief comments on social media from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea calling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a approach of claiming back previous domains.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on recently that attempts to validate "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Preparations on the Border

There have been little evidence of large-scale army activities in the boundary zones between the both nations.

However, in Ethiopia, state television has displayed graduation ceremonies of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The head of human resources department of the military, the officer, commented lately in an interview that the defense forces was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of youths" were entering service, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Past Background of the Tension

For over fifty years from 1890, the territory was governed by Italian colonisers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the British administration before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this agreement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war ensued, concluding with military reversal in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then confirmed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, causing conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors remained at odds.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders signed a announcement that the war was finished – a decision that gained the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's previous civil war in Tigray.

But ties have since broken down again.