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Increasing apprehensions are present about the chance of military engagement among Horn of Africa neighbors, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile rhetoric has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a intense rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in last year that his government's access to the sea was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrea rejected.

Ties between the both governments have frequently been strained. After a long-standing battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a extensive sea border, officially seceded from Ethiopia in 1993, making it landlocked.

In 1998, a territorial conflict started in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Current Comments from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and implied the intention to take it by force.

In early September, the Prime Minister said the country's "error" of losing entry to the sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrea's Response to the Claims

Amid persistent challenges from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been restricted to brief comments on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for sea access calling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a approach of retaking former lands.

Government spokespeople cautioned on recently that attempts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Border

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

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, state television has shown completion events of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The head of personnel division of the defense force, General Hachalu, stated recently in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Historical Background of the Tension

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

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

Yet in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this arrangement and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year internal conflict occurred, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then endorsed by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, leading to conflict in 1998.

Although this ended in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries stayed at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President the president. The both leaders signed a declaration that the war was finished – a action that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then cooperators in the country's previous internal conflict in Tigray.

But relations have since broken down anew.