Intensifying Verbal Conflict Among Ethiopia and Eritrea Sparks Anxieties of Armed Clash
Growing apprehensions have emerged over the potential of military engagement between Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile discourse has ratcheted up in recent weeks.
What Did Ethiopia Declared?
Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has provoked a fierce war of words.
Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in last year that his government's sea access was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrean authorities rejected.
Relations between the both governments have regularly been difficult. After a decades-long fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it without sea access.
Subsequently, a territorial conflict broke out in which numerous people died.
Latest Remarks from Ethiopia's Government
Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrea's maritime facility of Assab β some 60 km from the boundary - and implied the wish to capture it through military means.
On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "rectified soon".
Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be given back "usingζ¦ε".
Eritrean Reaction to the Statements
Amid ongoing challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to short statements on online platforms from Communications Head the minister.
The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea describing it as "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" β a strategy of claiming back previous domains.
Government spokespeople alerted on mid-September that moves to justify "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".
Security Preparations on the Region
There have been no reports of large-scale army activities in the boundary zones between the both nations.
Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, government media has displayed training completions of numerous trainees at various military training camps.
The director of personnel division of the military, the officer, stated recently in an discussion that the military was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our enemies".
Past Background of the Tension
For over fifty years from 1890, Eritrea was administered by Italian rulers.
Following the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British administration before evolving into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.
However in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this system and Eritrea became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.
A extended civil war followed, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Sovereignty was then approved by voters in a referendum in 1993.
Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, resulting in war in 1998.
Although this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations remained at loggerheads.
This changed in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrea's leader the president. The two endorsed a declaration that the hostilities was concluded β a decision that won Abiy the international recognition.
The neighboring states were then cooperators in the country's previous internal conflict in Tigray.
Yet diplomatic connections have later worsened once more.
