🔗 Share this article Intensifying Rhetorical Battle Between Ethiopia and Eritrean Government Raises Fears of Armed Clash Mounting concerns have emerged regarding the possibility of warfare among East African neighbors, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as confrontational language has escalated in the past few weeks. Ethiopia and Eritrea were allies in the armed struggle in northern Ethiopia but they have later become estranged. What Did Ethiopian Officials Stated? Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has provoked a fierce war of words. Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in the previous year that his country's sea access was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrea ignored. Ties between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. Following a long-standing fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it cut off from the sea. Five years later, a territorial conflict broke out in which numerous people lost their lives. Recent Statements from Ethiopia's Officials Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and hinted at the desire to capture it through military means. On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "error" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "addressed in the future". Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "through military action". Eritrean Answer to the Claims In the face of continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been confined to concise remarks on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane G.. He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry calling it "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of claiming back previous domains. Government spokespeople cautioned on mid-September that attempts to validate "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached". Military Movements on the Ground There have been little evidence of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the two countries. Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, state television has broadcast training completions of many recruits at multiple army bases. The head of staff section of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an conversation that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a message to our enemies". Past Roots of the Tension For over fifty years from the late 19th century, the territory was administered by Italian rulers. After World War II, it was then managed by the British military before turning into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire. Yet in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this system and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia. A thirty-year civil war followed, ending with military reversal in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then endorsed by the population in a referendum in 1993. Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they clashed over the exact location of their common border, leading to conflict in 1998. Though this ended in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries remained at in dispute. This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a declaration that the war was over – a move that won Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize. The two governments were then cooperators in Ethiopia's recent internal conflict in Tigray. But ties have subsequently deteriorated again.