🔗 Share this article Escalating Rhetorical Battle Between Ethiopia and Eritrea Sparks Anxieties of Conflict Increasing concerns have emerged over the chance of warfare among Horn of Africa neighbours, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational discourse has escalated in the past few weeks. The Ethiopian government and Eritrea worked together in the armed struggle in northern Ethiopia but they have since fallen out. What Did Ethiopia Declared? Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for access to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has sparked a fierce rhetorical conflict. PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in last year that his country's maritime access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrea rejected. Ties between the two countries have often been tense. Following a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it without sea access. Subsequently, a border war started in which numerous people were killed. Latest Comments from Ethiopian Government Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and suggested the intention to capture it through military means. In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected in the future". The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "through military action". Eritrea's Answer to the Threats In the face of persistent warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been restricted to brief comments on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel. Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for maritime entry calling it "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a strategy of claiming back former lands. Eritrean authorities alerted on 16 September that attempts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached". Military Preparations on the Ground So far, there are little evidence of large-scale army activities in the boundary zones between the two countries. However, in Ethiopia, national TV has displayed training completions of thousands of cadets at various military training camps. The director of personnel division of the military, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our opponents". Past Roots of the Tension For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was ruled by Italian colonisers. Following Italy's defeat, it was then administered by the British administration before evolving into a federated part of Ethiopia. Yet in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this agreement and Eritrea became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state. A thirty-year civil war followed, finishing with the government's loss in 1991. Autonomy was then approved by Eritreans in a vote in 1993. Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, resulting in hostilities in 1998. Even though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors remained at in dispute. This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders signed a announcement that the conflict was over – a move that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize. The two governments were then cooperators in the country's 2020-2022 internal conflict in Tigray. Yet ties have since broken down once more.