Escalating War of Words Involving Ethiopia and Eritrean Government Raises Anxieties of Military Confrontation
Increasing concerns have emerged regarding the possibility of military engagement among Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational language has intensified in the last month.
What Did Ethiopia Stated?
Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a fierce rhetorical conflict.
The Ethiopian leader previously announced in last year that his nation's access to the sea was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities rejected.
Ties between the both governments have frequently been strained. Following a prolonged fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a long sea border, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it cut off from the sea.
Five years later, a territorial conflict started in which over a hundred thousand people died.
Recent Statements from Ethiopian Leadership
Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the desire to take it by force.
Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "addressed in the future".
Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "using武力".
Eritrea's Answer to the Statements
In the face of continuous challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to concise remarks on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.
Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea describing it as "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a approach of reclaiming former lands.
The information ministry cautioned on mid-September that efforts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".
Defense Preparations on the Ground
Currently, there are no reports of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the both nations.
Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has displayed completion events of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.
The leader of staff section of the defense force, the officer, commented lately in an interview that the army was in a "secure situation" as "many thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".
Previous Background of the Dispute
For decades from 1890, the territory was administered by Italian rulers.
After World War II, it was then administered by the British administration before becoming a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.
But in 1962 the ruler ended this system and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.
A extended civil war followed, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Sovereignty was then endorsed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.
Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their common border, leading to conflict in 1998.
Though this concluded in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations stayed at loggerheads.
This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders agreed to a announcement that the hostilities was finished – a move that gained the Prime Minister the prestigious award.
The neighboring states were then cooperators in Ethiopia's previous internal conflict in Tigray.
Yet relations have later worsened once more.
