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Increasing concerns exist about the possibility of armed conflict between Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile rhetoric has intensified in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for access to the sea coast through Eritrea has triggered a intense verbal exchange.

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in the previous year that his country's sea access was an vital issue, statements that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Ties between the both governments have often been tense. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it landlocked.

In 1998, a military clash erupted in which over a hundred thousand people were killed.

Current Comments from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and military leader the army commander have publicly asserted control of Eritrea's coastal city of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and suggested the wish to take it by force.

In early September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "rectified tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrean Answer to the Claims

Despite persistent threats from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been limited to concise remarks on X from Communications Head the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for maritime entry labeling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a approach of claiming back former lands.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on 16 September that efforts to justify "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Movements on the Ground

Currently, there are few indications of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the neighboring states.

However, in Ethiopia, state television has shown training completions of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The leader of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, stated recently in an discussion that the army was in a "strong stance" as "many thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Previous Roots of the Conflict

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

After the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the UK forces before turning into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

However in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this arrangement and Eritrea became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year civil war occurred, ending with military reversal in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then approved by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Although this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries continued at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two endorsed a statement that the war was over – a decision that won the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The two governments were then partners in the country's previous civil war in Tigray.

However ties have later worsened once more.