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Increasing concerns exist about the chance of military engagement between Horn of Africa neighbors, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as aggressive discourse has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for entry to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has triggered a intense war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in the previous year that his nation's maritime access was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Relations between the two countries have regularly been difficult. After a long-standing battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a long maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

In 1998, a military clash started in which numerous people died.

Latest Comments from Ethiopian Leadership

Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the desire to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said the country's "mistake" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "rectified soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrea's Response to the Statements

In the face of continuous challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to short statements on social media from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry describing it as "risky" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a approach of claiming back former lands.

The information ministry warned on recently that attempts to justify "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Border

Currently, there are few indications of major military movements in the border areas between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, government media has shown completion events of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The director of human resources department of the armed forces, the officer, recently said in an interview that the military was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Past Origins of the Dispute

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, the territory was governed by Italian rulers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British military before becoming a integrated region of Ethiopia.

Yet in the early 1960s the ruler terminated this agreement and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war occurred, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then confirmed by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Even though this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries stayed at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrean President the president. The both leaders signed a statement that the conflict was finished – a decision that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then partners in the country's previous armed struggle in Tigray.

However ties have later worsened anew.