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Increasing worries have emerged regarding the potential of armed conflict among Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a intense verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in the previous year that his nation's sea access was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have often been tense. After a long-standing fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a long sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, making it without sea access.

Five years later, a military clash broke out in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Latest Comments from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted control of Eritrean coastal city of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the desire to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said the country's "error" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "rectified soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "by force".

Eritrea's Answer to the Statements

Amid persistent threats from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been confined to brief comments on X from Communications Head Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for maritime entry describing it as "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a policy of reclaiming previous domains.

Government spokespeople warned on mid-September that efforts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Region

Currently, there are no reports of major military movements in the frontier regions between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in the country, state television has broadcast graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The head of human resources department of the military, General Hachalu, recently said in an discussion that the army was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our enemies".

Historical Roots of the Tension

For decades from the late 19th century, Eritrea was ruled by Italian colonisers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the UK forces before becoming a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

However in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this arrangement and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year armed struggle followed, finishing with the government's loss in 1991. Sovereignty was then confirmed by the population in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, causing conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations stayed at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The two endorsed a announcement that the conflict was finished – a move that won Abiy the international recognition.

The two governments were then cooperators in Ethiopia's recent armed struggle in the northern region.

Yet relations have since broken down again.