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Growing worries are present regarding the possibility of armed conflict involving Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile discourse has intensified in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has sparked a heated verbal exchange.

The Ethiopian leader initially stated publicly in the previous year that his government's access to the sea was an existential matter, comments that Eritrea dismissed.

Ties between the both governments have often been tense. Following a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, rendering it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a military clash broke out in which numerous people lost their lives.

Current Comments from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have directly stated control of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and hinted at the intention to capture it through military means.

Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "mistake" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "rectified soon".

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

Eritrea's Reaction to the Statements

In the face of persistent challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to concise remarks on online platforms from Communications Head the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for sea access calling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a policy of reclaiming lost territory.

Eritrean authorities warned on mid-September that attempts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Ground

So far, there are no reports of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the two countries.

However, in Ethiopia, government media has displayed completion events of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The head of personnel division of the armed forces, General Hachalu, recently said in an discussion that the army was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Historical Roots of the Dispute

For over fifty years from 1890, the territory was governed by Italian colonisers.

After World War II, it was then controlled by the British administration before becoming a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s the ruler cancelled this system and the region became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

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

Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the exact location of their common border, resulting in war in 1998.

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

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President President Isaias. The two agreed to a declaration that the hostilities was finished – a move that gained the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then cooperators in the country's 2020-2022 civil war in Tigray.

But relations have since broken down anew.