🔗 Share this article Intensifying Verbal Conflict Among Ethiopia and Eritrea Triggers Anxieties of Armed Clash Increasing concerns have emerged about the potential of military engagement among Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has ratcheted up in the last month. The Ethiopian government and Eritrea worked together in the armed struggle in northern Ethiopia but they have since fallen out. What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared? Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has provoked a heated verbal exchange. Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in the previous year that his nation's sea access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities ignored. Relations between the neighboring nations have often been tense. After a prolonged fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a extensive maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it cut off from the sea. In 1998, a border war broke out in which numerous people lost their lives. Recent Statements from Ethiopia's Leadership Abiy and military leader the army commander have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and implied the desire to take it by force. Recently, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "corrected tomorrow". Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "through military action". Eritrea's Answer to the Statements In the face of persistent warnings from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been restricted to concise remarks on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel. He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry calling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of claiming back lost territory. The information ministry warned on mid-September that efforts to justify "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached". Defense Preparations on the Border Currently, there are no reports of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the two countries. Nonetheless, in the country, government media has displayed completion events of numerous trainees at various military training camps. The director of personnel division of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our opponents". Previous Origins of the Tension For more than half a century from the late 19th century, the territory was administered by Italian colonisers. Following World War II, it was then administered by the British military before becoming a associated territory of Ethiopia. Yet in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor ended this arrangement and Eritrea became fully incorporated into Ethiopia. A extended civil war ensued, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Autonomy was then confirmed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993. Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, leading to war in 1998. Although this concluded in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors remained at odds. This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders signed a statement that the conflict was concluded – a move that earned the Prime Minister the prestigious award. The two governments were then partners in the country's recent civil war in the northern region. However relations have later worsened again.