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Mounting worries are present regarding the chance of military engagement involving Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational discourse has escalated in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for access to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has provoked a fierce verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in the previous year that his country's sea access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrea rejected.

Ties between the both governments have frequently been strained. After a prolonged fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it without sea access.

In 1998, a military clash broke out in which numerous people died.

Recent Remarks from Ethiopia's Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have directly stated ownership of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and hinted at the desire to take it by force.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said the country's "mistake" of losing access to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "rectified soon".

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 Response to the Statements

Despite persistent challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been restricted to short statements on online platforms from Information Minister the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for maritime entry calling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a policy of retaking former lands.

The information ministry alerted on recently that attempts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Region

So far, there are no reports of large-scale army activities in the boundary zones between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in the country, government media has shown completion events of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The director of human resources department of the military, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an discussion that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of youths" were entering service, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Previous Origins of the Conflict

For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was governed by Italian rulers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British military before becoming a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

But in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A extended internal conflict followed, finishing with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then approved by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, leading to war in 1998.

Though this ended in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors remained at odds.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders endorsed a announcement that the conflict was finished – a action that earned Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

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

But relations have later worsened again.