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Increasing apprehensions have emerged about the potential of military engagement between Horn of Africa neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as hostile discourse has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has sparked a fierce rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in last year that his nation's maritime access was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Relations between the both governments have frequently been strained. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopia in 1993, making it without sea access.

Subsequently, a territorial conflict broke out in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Latest Statements from Ethiopia's Officials

Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted control of Eritrean maritime facility of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the intention to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Statements

Despite continuous warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been confined to short statements on X from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea calling it "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a policy of claiming back previous domains.

Eritrean authorities alerted on mid-September that moves to legitimise "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".

Security Activities on the Border

Currently, there are little evidence of major military movements in the boundary zones between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, government media has shown completion events of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The director of personnel division of the military, the officer, commented lately in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Past Roots of the Conflict

For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was ruled by Italian colonisers.

After World War II, it was then managed by the British administration before evolving into a federated part of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the ruler ended this agreement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict ensued, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Independence was then endorsed by voters in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their common border, leading to conflict in 1998.

Even though this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors continued at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrean President the president. The both leaders endorsed a announcement that the hostilities was concluded – a action that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The both administrations were then allies in the country's 2020-2022 internal conflict in Tigray.

However relations have since broken down anew.