Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has reaffirmed that his country has no intention of seeking conflict with Eritrea over access to the Red Sea, despite recent tensions that have raised fears of a possible war between the two nations.
“We do not intend to engage in any conflict with Eritrea for the purpose of gaining access to the sea,” Abiy said on Thursday, according to a social media post from his office on X .
While Ethiopia’s landlocked status makes access to the Red Sea an essential matter, Abiy emphasized that his government seeks to resolve the issue peacefully through dialogue, rather than military means.
Tensions have been rising in recent weeks after Eritrea announced a nationwide military mobilization, and Ethiopia responded by deploying troops near the border, according to human rights organizations and diplomatic sources.
A potential conflict between the two nations would undermine the historic peace efforts that earned Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and could trigger a humanitarian crisis in a region already impacted by the ongoing war in Sudan.
Ethiopia and Eritrea had made significant strides in reconciliation, with Eritrea supporting Ethiopian federal forces during the 2020-2022 war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a conflict that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. However, relations soured after Eritrea was excluded from peace talks that ended the Tigray war in November 2022.
