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Increasing worries exist regarding the chance of military engagement among Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as aggressive rhetoric has escalated in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has triggered a heated rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in the previous year that his government's access to the sea was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrea rejected.

Ties between the both governments have frequently been strained. After a long-standing struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a territorial conflict started in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Current Statements from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and implied the intention to seize it militarily.

In early September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing entry to the sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "rectified soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrea's Answer to the Claims

Despite continuous challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been limited to short statements on X from Communications Head Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea calling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a approach of reclaiming previous domains.

Government spokespeople warned on 16 September that attempts to validate "blatant hostility" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Activities on the Ground

Currently, there are little evidence of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the neighboring states.

Nevertheless, in the country, government media has shown training completions of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The head of personnel division of the military, the officer, stated recently in an interview that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of young people" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Past Background of the Conflict

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, Eritrea was ruled by Italian colonisers.

After World War II, it was then controlled by the British military before becoming a associated territory of Ethiopia.

However in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this agreement and the region became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long internal conflict followed, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Independence was then endorsed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the exact location of their mutual frontier, resulting in war in 1998.

Even though this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors remained at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two endorsed a declaration that the conflict was over – a action that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The both administrations were then partners in Ethiopia's previous armed struggle in Tigray.

However ties have later worsened anew.