🔗 Share this article Intensifying Verbal Conflict Among Ethiopian Government and Eritrean Government Raises Concerns of Conflict Increasing apprehensions have emerged regarding the potential of armed conflict involving East African neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has ratcheted up in the last month. The Ethiopian government and Eritrea worked together in the internal conflict in northern Ethiopia but they have since fallen out. What Has Ethiopia Said? Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a fierce rhetorical conflict. PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in last year that his government's sea access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrean authorities dismissed. Relations between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a long-standing battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, making it cut off from the sea. Five years later, a territorial conflict started in which numerous people were killed. Latest Comments from Ethiopian Government Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated ownership of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and suggested the intention to seize it militarily. In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "mistake" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "addressed soon". Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be returned "through military action". Eritrean Reaction to the Statements Amid persistent challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been restricted to concise remarks on social media from Communications Head Yemane G.. He has rejected Ethiopia's push for maritime entry labeling it "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a policy of retaking lost territory. Eritrean authorities cautioned on mid-September that moves to justify "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached". Defense Activities on the Region There have been few indications of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the two countries. Nonetheless, in the country, national TV has displayed graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases. The leader of human resources department of the armed forces, the officer, recently said in an discussion that the army was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our opponents". Past Roots of the Dispute For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was administered by Italian colonisers. After World War II, it was then controlled by the UK forces before becoming a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire. However in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this agreement and Eritrea became completely integrated into Ethiopia. A thirty-year armed struggle ensued, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Independence was then confirmed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993. Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they clashed over the exact location of their shared boundary, resulting in war in 1998. Even though this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the two nations remained at loggerheads. This changed in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The two endorsed a statement that the conflict was concluded – a action that gained Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize. The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's recent civil war in the northern region. Yet diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated anew.