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Increasing apprehensions exist regarding the chance of military engagement involving Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as confrontational discourse has escalated in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for access to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has triggered a heated war of words.

The Ethiopian leader initially stated publicly in last year that his government's access to the sea was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrea dismissed.

Relations between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it landlocked.

In 1998, a territorial conflict started in which numerous people were killed.

Recent Statements from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and hinted at the wish to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "corrected in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrean Response to the Claims

Despite persistent warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to brief comments on online platforms from Information Minister the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry calling it "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a approach of reclaiming previous domains.

Government spokespeople alerted on mid-September that attempts to justify "blatant hostility" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Ground

There have been no reports of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in the country, national TV has displayed training completions of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The head of staff section of the armed forces, General Hachalu, stated recently in an interview that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Past Origins of the Conflict

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, Eritrea was governed by Italian colonisers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British military before turning into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

However in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this system and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

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

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, resulting in war in 1998.

Though this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries stayed at odds.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President the president. The two agreed to a statement that the conflict was finished – a decision that earned Abiy the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then allies in Ethiopia's previous internal conflict in Tigray.

But relations have since broken down again.