🔗 Share this article Intensifying Rhetorical Battle Involving Ethiopian Government and Eritrea Triggers Anxieties of Military Confrontation Growing worries have emerged regarding the potential of armed conflict between East African neighbors, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive language has ratcheted up in recent weeks. The Ethiopian government and Eritrea worked together in the internal conflict in northern Ethiopia but they have since fallen out. What Has Ethiopian Officials Said? Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a fierce verbal exchange. PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in the previous year that his country's maritime access was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrea dismissed. Ties between the both governments have frequently been strained. After a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a long maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it without sea access. Subsequently, a territorial conflict broke out in which numerous people were killed. Recent Remarks from Ethiopian Leadership Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and implied the intention to capture it through military means. In early September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing access to the sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "addressed soon". The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "usingæ¦åŠ›". Eritrea's Answer to the Statements Amid ongoing threats from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been limited to short statements on X from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel. Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea describing it as "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a approach of claiming back previous domains. Government spokespeople alerted on mid-September that attempts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached". Security Preparations on the Region Currently, there are little evidence of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the two countries. Nonetheless, in the country, state television has shown graduation ceremonies of many recruits at multiple army bases. The leader of human resources department of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an interview that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries". Historical Roots of the Dispute For more than half a century from the late 19th century, the territory was governed by Italian rulers. After World War II, it was then managed by the British military before evolving into a integrated region of Ethiopia. However in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this arrangement and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state. A extended civil war occurred, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Independence was then approved by voters in a referendum in 1993. Temporarily in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, causing hostilities in 1998. Even though this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries remained at in dispute. This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The two agreed to a announcement that the war was finished – a decision that gained Abiy the prestigious award. The both administrations were then allies in the country's previous armed struggle in the northern region. But relations have since broken down once more.