🔗 Share this article Intensifying Rhetorical Battle Involving Ethiopia and Eritrean Government Sparks Anxieties of Military Confrontation Growing apprehensions exist over the potential of military engagement among Horn of Africa neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile language has escalated in the past few weeks. The Ethiopian government and The Eritrean government were allies in the civil war in Tigray but they have subsequently disagreed. What Has Ethiopia Stated? Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for entry to the sea coast through Eritrea has triggered a intense war of words. Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in the previous year that his nation's maritime access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrea dismissed. Relations between the two countries have often been tense. Following a prolonged battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive sea border, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it cut off from the sea. Subsequently, a territorial conflict broke out in which more than 100,000 people died. Recent Remarks from Ethiopian Government Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated ownership of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and suggested the wish to seize it militarily. On 1 September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing entry to the sea as a due to Eritrea secession would be "corrected soon". The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be given back "usingæ¦åŠ›". Eritrea's Answer to the Threats Amid persistent challenges from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been confined to short statements on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel. Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for maritime entry labeling it "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a policy of claiming back former lands. The information ministry alerted on mid-September that moves to justify "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary 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, state television has shown graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at multiple army bases. The leader of human resources department of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an discussion that the army was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our opponents". Past Roots of the Dispute For more than half a century from the late 19th century, Eritrea was administered by Italian colonisers. After World War II, it was then controlled by the UK forces before turning into a associated territory of Ethiopia. Yet in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor terminated this agreement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state. A thirty-year internal conflict occurred, concluding with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then approved by the population in a referendum in 1993. Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, causing conflict in 1998. Though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries continued at odds. This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrean President President Isaias. The both leaders endorsed a declaration that the hostilities was concluded – a action that gained the Prime Minister the international recognition. The both administrations were then partners in Ethiopia's recent armed struggle in Tigray. Yet relations have later worsened anew.