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Growing worries have emerged regarding the chance of military engagement involving Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as aggressive discourse has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for entry to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has provoked a heated verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in last year that his government's access to the sea was an existential matter, comments that Eritrea ignored.

Relations between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a territorial conflict started in which numerous people were killed.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the intention to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing entry to the sea as a result of Eritrea's separation 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 returned "by force".

Eritrean Reaction to the Threats

In the face of persistent warnings from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been confined to brief comments on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea labeling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a policy of reclaiming former lands.

Eritrean authorities alerted on recently that efforts to validate "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Region

There have been little evidence of major military movements in the boundary zones between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has broadcast completion events of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The director of personnel division of the armed forces, General Hachalu, commented lately in an conversation that the military was in a "strong stance" as "many thousands of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Historical Origins of the Dispute

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

Following World War II, it was then administered by the British military before evolving into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

But in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor ended this system and Eritrea became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A extended civil war occurred, finishing with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then endorsed by the population in a vote in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Even though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations continued at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders signed a statement that the conflict was concluded – a action that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then partners in the country's recent armed struggle in the northern region.

Yet ties have later worsened anew.