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Growing concerns are present about the potential of armed conflict among Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive language has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

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

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in last year that his government's access to the sea was an vital issue, comments that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Relations between the two countries have frequently been strained. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in 1993, making it without sea access.

In 1998, a border war erupted in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrean southern port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and implied the wish to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said the country's "error" of losing entry to the sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "addressed tomorrow".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrean Answer to the Threats

In the face of persistent threats from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been confined to brief comments on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for sea access calling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a strategy of claiming back lost territory.

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

Military Movements on the Region

So far, there are little evidence of large-scale army activities in the boundary zones between the neighboring states.

Nevertheless, in the country, government media has displayed completion events of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The leader of human resources department of the defense force, the officer, commented lately in an interview that the military was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our enemies".

Historical Origins of the Dispute

For decades from 1890, Eritrea was governed by Italian colonisers.

After World War II, it was then administered by the UK forces before evolving into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

However in the early 1960s the ruler terminated this arrangement and Eritrea became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A extended internal conflict occurred, concluding with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then confirmed by Eritreans in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they disagreed over the exact location of their mutual frontier, leading to hostilities in 1998.

Even though this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations continued at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrean President the president. The two signed a announcement that the conflict was finished – a decision that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's previous armed struggle in Tigray.

But diplomatic connections have later worsened anew.