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Mounting worries are present over the chance of armed conflict between East African neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as hostile rhetoric has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has sparked a fierce war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in last year that his nation's access to the sea was an existential matter, statements that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Ties between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it landlocked.

Subsequently, a territorial conflict started in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have openly claimed control of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and hinted at the desire to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrean Answer to the Threats

Despite persistent warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to brief comments on X from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea describing it as "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a policy of retaking former lands.

The information ministry cautioned on mid-September that moves to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Border

Currently, there are no reports of major military movements in the border areas between the both nations.

However, in Ethiopia, state television has displayed completion events of many recruits at various military training camps.

The head of staff section of the defense force, General Hachalu, recently said in an conversation that the military was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Past Roots of the Conflict

For decades from 1890, the territory was ruled by colonial powers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the British administration before becoming a integrated region of Ethiopia.

However in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this agreement and the region became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long armed struggle ensued, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then endorsed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their common border, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Even though this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries stayed at odds.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a announcement that the conflict was concluded – a decision that gained the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in Ethiopia's previous civil war in the northern region.

Yet ties have later worsened once more.