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Growing apprehensions exist about the possibility of armed conflict between Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive rhetoric has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for access to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a heated rhetorical conflict.

The Ethiopian leader initially stated publicly in the previous year that his country's sea access was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Ties between the two countries have frequently been strained. Following a prolonged battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a extensive maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a territorial conflict started in which numerous people lost their lives.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopia's Leadership

Abiy and army chief the army commander have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrean maritime facility of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the desire to seize it militarily.

Recently, the Prime Minister said the country's "blunder" of being denied passage to the sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "corrected soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrean Response to the Threats

Amid ongoing warnings from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been restricted to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for sea access describing it as "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a approach of reclaiming lost territory.

Eritrean authorities alerted on 16 September that moves to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Border

Currently, there are little evidence of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the neighboring states.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, state television has shown completion events of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The leader of staff section of the armed forces, the officer, commented lately in an discussion that the military was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Past Background of the Conflict

For decades from 1890, the territory was governed by Italian colonisers.

After Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the UK forces before turning into a federated part of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this system and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year armed struggle occurred, concluding with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then endorsed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their common border, causing war in 1998.

Even though this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries stayed at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a statement that the hostilities was over – a decision that gained Abiy the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then partners in Ethiopia's previous internal conflict in Tigray.

Yet relations have later worsened once more.