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Increasing concerns exist over the chance of armed conflict among East African neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a fierce verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in 2023 that his nation's maritime access was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Ties between the both governments have regularly been difficult. After a long-standing battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, officially seceded from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it cut off from the sea.

Subsequently, a territorial conflict broke out in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Recent Remarks 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 border - and implied the desire to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "corrected in the future".

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

Eritrean Reaction to the Statements

In the face of ongoing threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to brief comments on online platforms from Communications Head the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea labeling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a strategy of reclaiming lost territory.

Government spokespeople alerted on 16 September that efforts to validate "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Border

There have been few indications of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the two countries.

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

The director of personnel division of the defense force, General Hachalu, recently said in an conversation that the army was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Past Background of the Tension

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

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

Yet in the early 1960s the ruler terminated this arrangement and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war followed, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then endorsed by Eritreans in a vote 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 clashed over the specific demarcation of their common border, causing hostilities in 1998.

Even though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries continued at odds.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders endorsed a declaration that the conflict was concluded – a decision that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The both administrations were then cooperators in the country's previous armed struggle in Tigray.

Yet diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated again.