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Mounting worries are present regarding the chance of armed conflict involving East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational discourse has ratcheted up in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrea has sparked a heated rhetorical conflict.

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in last year that his country's maritime access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrea dismissed.

Ties between the two countries have often been tense. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, rendering it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a border war broke out in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Latest Statements from Ethiopia's Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and suggested the desire to seize it militarily.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing access to the sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "through military action".

Eritrea's Response to the Statements

Amid continuous challenges from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been restricted to short statements on X from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for sea access describing it as "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of claiming back previous domains.

The information ministry warned on 16 September that moves to justify "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Border

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

However, in Ethiopia, national TV has broadcast completion events of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The leader of personnel division of the defense force, General Hachalu, recently said in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "many thousands of young people" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Historical Roots of the Tension

For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was governed by Italian colonisers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British administration before evolving into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

However in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this arrangement and Eritrea became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long armed struggle occurred, finishing with the government's loss in 1991. Independence was then endorsed by Eritreans in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their common border, causing war in 1998.

Even though this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries stayed at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a announcement that the hostilities was concluded – a action that gained Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's previous armed struggle in the northern region.

However diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated once more.