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Increasing worries are present over the chance of military engagement among Horn of Africa neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile rhetoric has escalated in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a fierce verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in 2023 that his government's maritime access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Relations between the both governments have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it landlocked.

Subsequently, a border war erupted in which more than 100,000 people died.

Recent Remarks from Ethiopia's Leadership

Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the intention to capture it through military means.

Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "addressed in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrea's Response to the Claims

Amid continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry labeling it "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a policy of claiming back previous domains.

Eritrean authorities alerted on mid-September that efforts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Border

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

However, in Ethiopia, national TV has shown graduation ceremonies of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The director of staff section of the defense force, the officer, commented lately in an conversation that the military was in a "secure situation" as "many thousands of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Previous Roots of the Conflict

For over fifty years from 1890, Eritrea was governed by colonial powers.

After World War II, it was then managed by the British military before turning into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor ended this arrangement and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long civil war ensued, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then endorsed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their common border, causing hostilities in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations remained at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President the president. The two endorsed a declaration that the conflict was finished – a decision that earned the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then cooperators in the country's recent civil war in the northern region.

However diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated again.