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Increasing worries are present regarding the potential of armed conflict among East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile discourse has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has sparked a heated verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in the previous year that his country's sea access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrea ignored.

Relations between the two countries have frequently been strained. Following a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

Five years later, a territorial conflict erupted in which more than 100,000 people died.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopia's Officials

Abiy and army chief the army commander have openly claimed ownership of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and hinted at the desire to take it by force.

In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "addressed soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrean Answer to the Statements

In the face of ongoing threats from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been restricted to brief comments on social media from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for sea access describing it as "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a policy of claiming back former lands.

Government spokespeople alerted on 16 September that attempts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Movements on the Border

So far, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in the country, state television has shown completion events of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The leader of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, recently said in an conversation that the military was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Past Origins of the Conflict

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, the territory was ruled by Italian colonisers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the British administration before becoming a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

But in the early 1960s the ruler cancelled this system and Eritrea became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A extended armed struggle ensued, concluding with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then confirmed by voters in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, resulting in war in 1998.

Although this ended in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors remained at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two endorsed a announcement that the hostilities was over – a move that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then cooperators in the country's recent internal conflict in the northern region.

But relations have subsequently deteriorated anew.