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Mounting concerns have emerged regarding the chance of armed conflict involving East African neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational discourse has ratcheted up in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

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

The Ethiopian leader initially stated publicly in last year that his nation's access to the sea was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Relations between the neighboring nations have often been tense. After a decades-long battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a border war erupted in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Recent Statements from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and hinted at the desire to take it by force.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "rectified in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrea's Answer to the Claims

Despite continuous threats from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been limited to brief comments on social media from Communications Head Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry describing it as "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a policy of claiming back lost territory.

Government spokespeople warned on 16 September that attempts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Region

There have been no reports of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in the country, state television has displayed training completions of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The leader of human resources department of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Historical Background of the Dispute

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

After World War II, it was then controlled by the UK forces before evolving into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A extended civil war followed, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then approved by voters in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, leading to war in 1998.

Though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors remained at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The two endorsed a statement that the hostilities was concluded – a move that earned the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 internal conflict in Tigray.

But relations have subsequently deteriorated anew.