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Increasing worries have emerged about the chance of armed conflict among Horn of Africa neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile rhetoric has escalated in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has sparked a heated war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in last year that his country's sea access was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopia in 1993, making it landlocked.

Five years later, a military clash erupted in which over a hundred thousand people were killed.

Recent Remarks from Ethiopia's Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have directly stated ownership of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and implied the intention to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "rectified in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrean Reaction to the Statements

Despite persistent warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to short statements on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea calling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a policy of retaking lost territory.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on 16 September that attempts to justify "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Border

There have been no reports of major military movements in the boundary zones between the two countries.

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

The head of human resources department of the defense force, General Hachalu, commented lately in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Historical Origins of the Conflict

For decades from 1890, Eritrea was governed by colonial powers.

Following World War II, it was then administered by the UK forces before becoming a federated part of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the ruler terminated this system and the region became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A extended civil war ensued, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Sovereignty was then confirmed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors stayed at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a announcement that the hostilities was finished – a decision that won Abiy the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in the country's 2020-2022 internal conflict in Tigray.

However ties have later worsened once more.