🔗 Share this article Rising Verbal Conflict Among Ethiopia and Eritrea Sparks Anxieties of Conflict Mounting concerns exist regarding the chance of armed conflict involving East African neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive discourse has intensified in the past few weeks. Ethiopia and Eritrea cooperated in the civil war in northern Ethiopia but they have since fallen out. What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared? Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has triggered a heated war of words. Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in last year that his government's access to the sea was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrea ignored. Diplomatic connections between the two countries have often been tense. After a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea. In 1998, a border war started in which numerous people lost their lives. Current Remarks from Ethiopia's Government Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and implied the intention to capture it through military means. Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "mistake" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "addressed in the future". Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "through military action". Eritrea's Response to the Claims Despite persistent challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been restricted to brief comments on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel. He has rejected Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea describing it as "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a approach of retaking former lands. Eritrean authorities cautioned on mid-September that moves to justify "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached". Military Activities on the Region So far, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the both nations. However, in Ethiopia, national TV has displayed completion events of numerous trainees at multiple army bases. The leader of personnel division of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of youths" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries". Historical Roots of the Dispute For over fifty years from 1890, the territory was administered by Italian colonisers. Following the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British military before turning into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire. However in 1962 the ruler cancelled this system and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state. A thirty-year armed struggle ensued, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Sovereignty was then confirmed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993. Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they disagreed over the exact location of their shared boundary, resulting in war in 1998. Though this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations continued at loggerheads. This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President the president. The two endorsed a statement that the conflict was finished – a move that earned Abiy the international recognition. The two governments were then cooperators in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 armed struggle in the northern region. Yet relations have subsequently deteriorated anew.