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Increasing worries have emerged about the possibility of military engagement involving Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as aggressive rhetoric has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrea has triggered a heated rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in the previous year that his nation's access to the sea was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Relations between the both governments have regularly been difficult. After a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

Subsequently, a territorial conflict started in which numerous people died.

Recent Comments from Ethiopia's Government

Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed ownership of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and hinted at the intention to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrea's Response to the Statements

In the face of ongoing warnings from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been restricted to brief comments on social media from Communications Head Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea calling it "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a strategy of reclaiming lost territory.

Government spokespeople alerted on mid-September that efforts to justify "obvious provocation" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Ground

Currently, there are little evidence of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the both nations.

However, in the country, state television has broadcast graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The head of human resources department of the military, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an conversation that the army was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Historical Origins of the Conflict

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

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the UK forces before turning into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor terminated this agreement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict ensued, ending with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then approved by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, causing hostilities in 1998.

Even though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations remained at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President the president. The two endorsed a declaration that the war was over – a action that won Abiy the international recognition.

The both administrations were then partners in the country's recent internal conflict in Tigray.

However diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated once more.