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Growing worries exist regarding the potential of armed conflict involving East African neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational discourse has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for passage to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has triggered a heated rhetorical conflict.

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in the previous year that his country's sea access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Relations between the both governments have often been tense. After a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a long sea border, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a military clash erupted in which more than 100,000 people lost their lives.

Latest Statements from Ethiopia's Government

Abiy and army chief the army commander have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and hinted at the desire to seize it militarily.

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

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "through military action".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Threats

Despite ongoing threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been confined to brief comments on X from Information Minister Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for sea access labeling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of claiming back lost territory.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on mid-September that efforts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Border

Currently, there are little evidence of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the two countries.

However, in the country, state television has shown training completions of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The leader of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, stated recently in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Past Origins of the Dispute

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

After World War II, it was then administered by the British administration before becoming a federated part of Ethiopia.

Yet in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor ended this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year armed struggle occurred, ending with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then endorsed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their common border, leading to war in 1998.

Even though this concluded 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 Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a declaration that the conflict was over – a move that gained the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's recent civil war in Tigray.

However ties have subsequently deteriorated again.