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Increasing worries are present regarding the potential of armed conflict among East African neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has escalated in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

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

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in the previous year that his nation's access to the sea was an existential matter, comments that Eritrea ignored.

Relations between the both governments have often been tense. After a long-standing struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in 1993, making it landlocked.

In 1998, a border war started in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Recent Comments from Ethiopia's Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted control of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and implied the wish to seize it militarily.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of being denied passage to the sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "rectified soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Claims

In the face of persistent challenges from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been confined to short statements on X from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea describing it as "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a policy of claiming back former lands.

Eritrean authorities alerted on 16 September that attempts to validate "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Activities on the Ground

There have been no reports of major military movements in the boundary zones between the neighboring states.

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

The leader of personnel division of the military, the officer, recently said in an interview that the army was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Previous Background of the Dispute

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

Following Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the British military before turning into a federated part of Ethiopia.

Yet in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this system and Eritrea became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long civil war followed, finishing with military reversal in 1991. Sovereignty was then confirmed by Eritreans in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the exact location of their mutual frontier, resulting in war in 1998.

Even though this ended in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors remained at in dispute.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders agreed to a announcement that the hostilities was over – a action that won Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then cooperators in Ethiopia's previous armed struggle in Tigray.

Yet ties have since broken down anew.