🔗 Share this article Intensifying War of Words Involving Ethiopian Government and Eritrea Raises Anxieties of Military Confrontation Increasing concerns are present regarding the possibility of warfare involving East African neighbors, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive language has ratcheted up in the last month. The Ethiopian government and Eritrea were allies in the civil war in northern Ethiopia but they have later become estranged. What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared? Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrea has sparked a intense rhetorical conflict. The Ethiopian leader previously announced in 2023 that his nation's sea access was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrean authorities dismissed. Relations between the both governments have frequently been strained. After a decades-long fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in 1993, making it cut off from the sea. Five years later, a border war erupted in which more than 100,000 people died. Current Comments from Ethiopia's Leadership Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and suggested the wish to capture it through military means. On 1 September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "addressed tomorrow". The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "through military action". Eritrean Answer to the Statements Amid ongoing challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to short statements on X from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel. The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea calling it "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of reclaiming former lands. Eritrean authorities warned on recently that attempts to justify "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached". Military Activities on the Ground Currently, there are no reports of major military movements in the border areas between the both nations. Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, government media has displayed graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities. The leader of personnel division of the military, the officer, commented lately in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our enemies". Past Origins of the Conflict For over fifty years from 1890, Eritrea was governed by Italian rulers. Following the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the UK forces before becoming a federated part of Ethiopia. Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this system and the region became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state. A extended civil war ensued, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Independence was then endorsed by voters in a referendum in 1993. Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the exact location of their common border, causing conflict in 1998. Though this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors continued at loggerheads. This ended in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The two endorsed a statement that the hostilities was finished – a action that earned Abiy the prestigious award. The two governments were then partners in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 civil war in Tigray. Yet relations have subsequently deteriorated anew.