🔗 Share this article Intensifying Verbal Conflict Among Ethiopian Government and Eritrean Government Raises Concerns of Military Confrontation Growing worries have emerged about the possibility of military engagement involving East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile rhetoric has intensified in the past few weeks. Ethiopia and Eritrea worked together in the armed struggle in Tigray but they have subsequently disagreed. What Has Ethiopia Said? Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for access to the sea coast through Eritrea has sparked a fierce war of words. PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in the previous year that his country's sea access was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrean authorities rejected. Diplomatic connections between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a prolonged battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it cut off from the sea. In 1998, a territorial conflict broke out in which more than 100,000 people died. Latest Comments from Ethiopia's Leadership Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have directly stated ownership of Eritrean southern port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and suggested the desire to capture it through military means. On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "error" of losing entry to the sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "rectified in the future". The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "through military action". Eritrean Reaction to the Statements Despite ongoing threats from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to brief comments on online platforms from Information Minister the minister. Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry calling it "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a strategy of reclaiming former lands. Government spokespeople alerted on recently that attempts to justify "obvious provocation" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached". Defense Activities on the Ground There have been no reports of major military movements in the border areas between the neighboring states. Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, government media has displayed training completions of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities. The leader of human resources department of the defense force, the officer, stated recently in an discussion that the military was in a "strong stance" as "many thousands of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our enemies". Previous Background of the Conflict For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was administered by colonial powers. After World War II, it was then administered by the British administration before evolving into a federated part of Ethiopia. Yet in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this agreement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state. A extended civil war followed, ending with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then confirmed by the population in a referendum in 1993. For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they disagreed over the exact location of their mutual frontier, resulting in war in 1998. Even though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors remained at loggerheads. This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a announcement that the conflict was concluded – a action that earned Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize. The neighboring states were then partners in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 armed struggle in the northern region. But diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated once more.