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Increasing apprehensions are present about the potential of armed conflict between Horn of Africa neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as aggressive language has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for access to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has provoked a heated rhetorical conflict.

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in 2023 that his country's sea access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrea rejected.

Ties between the two countries have frequently been strained. After a decades-long fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a military clash started in which more than 100,000 people died.

Current Comments from Ethiopia's Officials

Abiy and military leader the army commander have openly claimed control of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the wish to take it by force.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrean Answer to the Statements

Despite continuous challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been limited to short statements on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea calling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a approach of retaking previous domains.

Eritrean authorities alerted on 16 September that efforts to validate "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Border

So far, there are no reports of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has shown completion events of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The director of staff section of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our enemies".

Past Origins of the Conflict

For over fifty years from 1890, Eritrea was administered by Italian rulers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the UK forces before becoming a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

But in the early 1960s the ruler terminated this agreement and Eritrea became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long armed struggle occurred, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Autonomy was then endorsed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their common border, causing conflict in 1998.

Though this concluded in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries continued at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The two endorsed a statement that the hostilities was finished – a action that won Abiy the international recognition.

The two governments were then cooperators in the country's 2020-2022 armed struggle in Tigray.

But ties have subsequently deteriorated once more.