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Growing apprehensions have emerged regarding the potential of armed conflict between Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile language has intensified in the last month.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has triggered a fierce verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in the previous year that his nation's maritime access was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrea dismissed.

Relations between the two countries have regularly been difficult. After a long-standing fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it landlocked.

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

Recent Comments from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted control of Eritrean maritime facility of the port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and suggested the intention to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "rectified in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrea's Response to the Threats

Amid persistent warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been restricted to short statements on social media from Information Minister the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea labeling it "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a strategy of reclaiming lost territory.

The information ministry cautioned on recently that moves to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Border

Currently, there are little evidence of major military movements in the border areas between the neighboring states.

Nevertheless, in the country, government media has broadcast completion events of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The director of personnel division of the armed forces, the officer, stated recently in an conversation that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our enemies".

Past Origins of the Tension

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

After the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the British military before evolving into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor ended this agreement and Eritrea became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year armed struggle ensued, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Independence was then endorsed by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their common border, resulting in war in 1998.

Though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries remained at in dispute.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a announcement that the war was finished – a move that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then partners in the country's 2020-2022 civil war in the northern region.

However relations have since broken down anew.