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Increasing apprehensions exist over the potential of armed conflict among East African neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational language has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

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

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in 2023 that his nation's maritime access was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrea dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have often been tense. After a prolonged battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a extensive maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it without sea access.

In 1998, a border war erupted in which over a hundred thousand people lost their lives.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopian Leadership

Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and suggested the desire to seize it militarily.

In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "corrected in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrean Response to the Statements

Amid continuous threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to short statements on X from Information Minister the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea labeling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a policy of claiming back previous domains.

Eritrean authorities alerted on recently that efforts 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".

Security Activities on the Region

So far, there are little evidence of large-scale army activities in the boundary zones between the neighboring states.

Nevertheless, in the country, state television has shown graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at multiple army bases.

The director of staff section of the military, the officer, stated recently in an conversation that the army was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Previous Background of the Tension

For decades from 1890, the territory was governed by Italian rulers.

After Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the British administration before becoming a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s the ruler ended this arrangement and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long internal conflict ensued, finishing with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then endorsed by the population in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the exact location of their common border, leading to war in 1998.

Though this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors continued at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders agreed to a declaration that the hostilities was over – a decision that won the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The two governments were then partners in Ethiopia's previous internal conflict in Tigray.

But ties have since broken down once more.