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Increasing apprehensions have emerged about the potential of armed conflict involving East African neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational language has escalated in the last month.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has triggered a heated rhetorical conflict.

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in the previous year that his nation's maritime access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have frequently been strained. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in 1993, making it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a territorial conflict erupted in which over a hundred thousand people were killed.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's coastal city of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and implied the desire to seize it militarily.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrea's Response to the Threats

In the face of ongoing challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been confined to brief comments on social media from Communications Head the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for maritime entry describing it as "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "expansionism" – a approach of claiming back previous domains.

Government spokespeople warned on 16 September that attempts to justify "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Border

So far, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the two countries.

However, in Ethiopia, government media has broadcast graduation ceremonies of many recruits at various military training camps.

The leader of human resources department of the defense force, the officer, stated recently in an interview that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Historical Origins of the Conflict

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

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British military before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

However in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor terminated this system and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A extended civil war ensued, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Independence was then approved by the population in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their common border, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Even though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the two nations continued at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader the president. The two endorsed a declaration that the war was finished – a move that won Abiy the prestigious award.

The two governments were then cooperators in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 internal conflict in Tigray.

But diplomatic connections have later worsened once more.