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Mounting worries have emerged regarding the possibility of armed conflict involving East African neighbors, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile language has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a intense rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in 2023 that his nation's sea access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Relations between the both governments have regularly been difficult. After a long-standing battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a extensive sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it without sea access.

Subsequently, a border war erupted in which over a hundred thousand people lost their lives.

Current Statements from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have openly claimed control of Eritrean maritime facility of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and suggested the wish to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "rectified tomorrow".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

Despite continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been confined to concise remarks on X from Information Minister the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea labeling it "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of retaking lost territory.

Eritrean authorities alerted on recently that efforts to validate "obvious provocation" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Ground

There have been few indications of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the both nations.

However, in the country, state television has broadcast training completions of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The leader of staff section of the military, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an interview that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of young people" were entering service, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Past Background of the Conflict

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

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British administration before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor terminated this arrangement and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

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

Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, leading to hostilities in 1998.

Though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors remained at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a statement that the hostilities was over – a action that earned Abiy the international recognition.

The two governments were then cooperators in the country's 2020-2022 civil war in the northern region.

But relations have later worsened again.