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Increasing apprehensions are present about the possibility of military engagement involving East African countries, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile rhetoric has escalated in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Stated?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has sparked a heated verbal exchange.

The Ethiopian leader initially stated publicly in 2023 that his country's maritime access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Ties between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. After a long-standing struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, making it without sea access.

Five years later, a border war erupted in which numerous people lost their lives.

Latest Comments from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have openly claimed control of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and hinted at the desire to seize it militarily.

In early September, the Prime Minister said the country's "blunder" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "rectified in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "through military action".

Eritrean Answer to the Threats

In the face of persistent warnings from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been restricted to concise remarks on social media from Communications Head the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry describing it as "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a approach of claiming back former lands.

The information ministry warned on 16 September that attempts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Ground

There have been no reports of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has broadcast completion events of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The head of human resources department of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an discussion that the military was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Historical Origins of the Conflict

For decades from 1890, the territory was administered by colonial powers.

After World War II, it was then managed by the UK forces before turning into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

But in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor ended this arrangement and the region became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

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

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, causing conflict in 1998.

Although this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations remained at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a declaration that the war was finished – a action that gained the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then cooperators in the country's previous armed struggle in the northern region.

However diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated once more.