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Increasing concerns are present regarding the potential of military engagement between Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile language has escalated in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for access to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a fierce rhetorical conflict.

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in the previous year that his nation's sea access was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrea rejected.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have often been tense. After a long-standing struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it without sea access.

Five years later, a border war started in which numerous people were killed.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and hinted at the intention to capture it through military means.

In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "corrected tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrean Response to the Claims

In the face of ongoing warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to concise remarks on social media from Communications Head Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for sea access labeling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of reclaiming lost territory.

Eritrean authorities warned on 16 September that efforts to justify "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Region

There have been little evidence of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the two countries.

However, in Ethiopia, government media has displayed training completions of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The head of staff section of the defense force, General Hachalu, stated recently in an discussion that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Historical Origins of the Tension

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

Following Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the British administration before turning into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

But in the early 1960s the ruler cancelled this system and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A extended internal conflict followed, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then endorsed by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily 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 mutual frontier, causing war in 1998.

Although this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations stayed at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President the president. The both leaders signed a announcement that the hostilities was finished – a decision that gained Abiy the prestigious award.

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

Yet relations have subsequently deteriorated anew.