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Mounting apprehensions have emerged over the potential of armed conflict between Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile language has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a heated verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in the previous year that his nation's maritime access was an vital issue, statements that Eritrea dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have frequently been strained. After a decades-long fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, rendering it without sea access.

Five years later, a military clash broke out in which numerous people lost their lives.

Current Statements from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrean maritime facility of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and hinted at the desire to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing entry to the sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "rectified in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrea's Response to the Claims

Amid ongoing challenges from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been limited to brief comments on X from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for maritime entry describing it as "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a policy of claiming back lost territory.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on 16 September that efforts to validate "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Ground

So far, there are no reports of major military movements in the boundary zones between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in the country, state television has broadcast completion events of many recruits at various military training camps.

The director of personnel division of the armed forces, the officer, commented lately in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "many thousands of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Previous Background of the Dispute

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, Eritrea was ruled by colonial powers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the British military before evolving into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this system and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year civil war followed, ending with military reversal in 1991. Sovereignty was then endorsed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their common border, leading to conflict in 1998.

Even though this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations continued at odds.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders agreed to a statement that the conflict was concluded – a action that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then allies in the country's previous armed struggle in the northern region.

But ties have subsequently deteriorated anew.