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Growing apprehensions are present over the possibility of military engagement among Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as hostile discourse has intensified in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has sparked a intense war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in last year that his government's sea access was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrea ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. After a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it cut off from the sea.

Subsequently, a border war broke out in which over a hundred thousand people lost their lives.

Recent Statements from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrean coastal city of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and implied the wish to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing entry to the sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "addressed soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "using武力".

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

Despite ongoing threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been confined to brief comments on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for maritime entry describing it as "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a strategy of retaking former lands.

The information ministry cautioned on recently that efforts to validate "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Region

Currently, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in the country, government media has broadcast graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The head of personnel division of the armed forces, the officer, stated recently in an conversation that the army was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Previous Background of the Conflict

For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was governed by Italian rulers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the UK forces before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this arrangement and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A extended armed struggle occurred, finishing with the government's loss in 1991. Sovereignty was then approved by the population in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their common border, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Even though this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the two nations stayed at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a declaration that the war was over – a move that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 internal conflict in the northern region.

But relations have later worsened again.