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Growing concerns have emerged regarding the potential of armed conflict involving East African neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile language has intensified in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has sparked a fierce rhetorical conflict.

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

Relations between the two countries have often been tense. Following a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, making it cut off from the sea.

Subsequently, a territorial conflict started in which more than 100,000 people lost their lives.

Latest Statements from Ethiopia's Government

Abiy and army chief the army commander have openly claimed control of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and hinted at the intention to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "error" of being denied passage to the sea as a due to Eritrea secession would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

Amid persistent warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been confined to short statements on social media from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry labeling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a approach of reclaiming previous domains.

Eritrean authorities alerted on mid-September that attempts to justify "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Activities on the Region

There have been few indications of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, government media has broadcast training completions of many recruits at various military training camps.

The leader of personnel division of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an interview that the military was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Previous Background of the Tension

For over fifty years from 1890, Eritrea was ruled by Italian colonisers.

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

Yet in the early 1960s the ruler ended this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long armed struggle followed, finishing with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then approved by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, causing hostilities in 1998.

Though this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations continued at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrean President the president. The both leaders signed a announcement that the war was finished – a decision that won the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in the country's recent armed struggle in Tigray.

But ties have subsequently deteriorated anew.