Rising Rhetorical Battle Between Ethiopia and Eritrean Government Raises Anxieties of Armed Clash

Increasing apprehensions have emerged about the possibility of military engagement between Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive rhetoric has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has sparked a intense war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in the previous year that his government's maritime access was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrea ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a prolonged battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, making it cut off from the sea.

Subsequently, a territorial conflict broke out in which numerous people were killed.

Current Remarks from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated ownership of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the desire to capture it through military means.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "rectified in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Statements

In the face of continuous warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to short statements on online platforms from Information Minister the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for sea access calling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a approach of retaking former lands.

The information ministry cautioned on recently that attempts to justify "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Movements on the Ground

Currently, there are little evidence of major military movements in the border areas between the both nations.

However, in Ethiopia, state television has displayed graduation ceremonies of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The head of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, commented lately in an interview that the military was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Past Background of the Tension

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, Eritrea was administered by Italian colonisers.

After World War II, it was then managed by the UK forces before becoming a integrated region of Ethiopia.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this arrangement and the region became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long armed struggle occurred, ending with military reversal in 1991. Autonomy was then approved by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, leading to conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the two nations continued at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader the president. The two agreed to a declaration that the conflict was finished – a move that won Abiy the prestigious award.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's recent internal conflict in Tigray.

However relations have subsequently deteriorated once more.