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Mounting apprehensions are present over the chance of armed conflict involving Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive discourse has intensified in the last month.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

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

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in last year that his nation's access to the sea was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Ties between the two countries have frequently been strained. After a long-standing struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, rendering it cut off from the sea.

Subsequently, a border war started in which numerous people died.

Recent Statements from Ethiopia's Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the wish to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "error" of losing entry to the sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "corrected tomorrow".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrean Reaction to the Threats

In the face of continuous challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been limited to brief comments on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for sea access calling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a policy of claiming back former lands.

Government spokespeople alerted on mid-September that attempts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Border

There have been no reports of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in the country, national TV has displayed completion events of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The director of human resources department of the military, the officer, stated recently in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "many thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Past Origins of the Dispute

For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was administered by colonial powers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the UK forces before evolving into a federated part of Ethiopia.

However in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this system and Eritrea became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long civil war occurred, ending with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then confirmed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Although this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the two nations stayed at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders endorsed a announcement that the hostilities was over – a action that gained Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then partners in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 civil war in Tigray.

Yet ties have since broken down again.