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Increasing apprehensions are present about the potential of armed conflict between Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile language has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has provoked a fierce rhetorical conflict.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in last year that his country's access to the sea was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrea dismissed.

Relations between the two countries have frequently been strained. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

Five years later, a territorial conflict broke out in which over a hundred thousand people lost their lives.

Latest Comments from Ethiopia's Government

Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrean maritime facility of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the desire to seize it militarily.

In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "through military action".

Eritrean Answer to the Statements

In the face of continuous warnings from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been confined to short statements on X from Information Minister Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea labeling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of retaking previous domains.

The information ministry alerted on mid-September that moves to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Region

There have been no reports of major military movements in the border areas between the both nations.

However, in the country, national TV has shown graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at multiple army bases.

The director of human resources department of the defense force, General Hachalu, stated recently in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our enemies".

Previous Origins of the Dispute

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, Eritrea was governed by Italian colonisers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the British military before becoming a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

But in the early 1960s the ruler ended this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long armed struggle occurred, concluding with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then endorsed by voters in a referendum in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their common border, causing war in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries stayed at in dispute.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a declaration that the conflict was concluded – a move that gained Abiy the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then partners in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 civil war in the northern region.

But diplomatic connections have later worsened again.