Rising Verbal Conflict Among Ethiopia and Eritrean Government Raises Fears of Conflict

Increasing apprehensions exist regarding the potential of military engagement involving Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile rhetoric has intensified in the last month.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for access to the sea coast through Eritrea has triggered a intense verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in the previous year that his country's sea access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. After a decades-long battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a military clash erupted in which numerous people died.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Officials

Abiy and army chief the army commander have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the intention to seize it militarily.

Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing entry to the sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "by force".

Eritrean Response to the Threats

In the face of persistent threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to short statements on social media from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea describing it as "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a policy of retaking former lands.

Government spokespeople cautioned on 16 September that efforts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Region

So far, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, state television has displayed completion events of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The leader of human resources department of the defense force, General Hachalu, stated recently in an discussion that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Historical Origins of the Dispute

For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was administered by Italian colonisers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the UK forces before turning into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in 1962 the ruler terminated this agreement and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict occurred, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Independence 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 Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their common border, leading to conflict in 1998.

Although this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries remained at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrean President President Isaias. The two endorsed a announcement that the conflict was concluded – a decision that earned the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The both administrations were then allies in the country's recent civil war in the northern region.

However relations have subsequently deteriorated again.