Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian Prime Minister had on Thursday, October 26 stated that he would not be invading any nation, in an attempt to quell the fears of the neighbouring countries’ that he might use force to gain access to a sea port.
This is coming after Abiy informed the state media on October 13 that Ethiopia should declare what he had called “the landlocked nation’s right” to access the Red Sea as much as was possible through peaceful means. This declaration further went to raise tensions with regional governments and became the spectre of a fresh conflict in the Horn of Africa.
Coastal Eritrea, which only just secured independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a prolonged civil war, had described the recent commentary over the Red Sea as “too much” and cautioned concerned parties to avoid being angered, while directly avoiding addressing Abiy’s comments.
Both countries had as a result of Abiy’s statement, since moved their troops closer to the shared border, according to diplomat reports.
Humanitarians have following this, raised concerns of yet another conflict in a region already plagued by violence.
Abiy had meanwhile given his assurance that Ethiopia would not pursue its interests “through means of violence”, and that it would cease to pull the trigger on its fellow [African] brothers.
In the days following the exchange Eritrea has deployed troops in the town of Bure, along the border with Ethiopia’s Afar region, while Ethiopia has stationed its troops towards that same border, according to reports of two diplomats and one humanitarian.
Note that Abiy had won a Nobel peace prize in 2019 for his peacemaking efforts which successfully terminated about two decades of hostility with the Eritrean nation.
Eritrea has afterwards fought together with Ethiopia in the war against regional forces from Tigray, but relations had soured once again after Asmara was debarred from the peace talks that ended that conflict in November, and because some of its troops remain in Tigray.
As at the time of making this report, Somalia’s government had not immediately responded to Reuters request for comment.
