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Growing worries have emerged over the potential of armed conflict among Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational discourse has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for access to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a heated war of words.

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in last year that his country's access to the sea was an existential matter, statements that Eritrea dismissed.

Ties between the neighboring nations have often been tense. Following a long-standing struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, making it cut off from the sea.

Subsequently, a territorial conflict started in which numerous people were killed.

Current Statements from Ethiopian Officials

Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and implied the wish to take it by force.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of losing entry to the sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "corrected soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "by force".

Eritrean Response to the Threats

In the face of continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been confined to short statements on X from Information Minister Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for sea access labeling it "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a strategy of reclaiming former lands.

Eritrean authorities warned on mid-September that attempts to validate "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Movements on the Region

There have been little evidence of major military movements in the frontier regions between the both nations.

However, in the country, government media has shown training completions of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The head of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, recently said in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Previous Origins of the Dispute

For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was governed by Italian rulers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British military before becoming a integrated region of Ethiopia.

However in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor terminated this system and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict followed, ending with the government's loss in 1991. Autonomy was then confirmed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, causing conflict in 1998.

Although this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations stayed at odds.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The two agreed to a announcement that the war was finished – a action that earned the Prime Minister the international recognition.

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

But diplomatic connections have later worsened anew.