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Growing apprehensions exist about the chance of armed conflict among East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as confrontational discourse has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has triggered a heated war of words.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in last year that his country's maritime access was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrea ignored.

Relations between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

In 1998, a territorial conflict broke out in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Current Statements from Ethiopia's Government

Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and suggested the desire to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "addressed in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrea's Answer to the Claims

Despite continuous threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to brief comments on X from Communications Head Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for sea access describing it as "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a policy of reclaiming lost territory.

The information ministry warned on 16 September that attempts to validate "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Movements on the Region

So far, there are little evidence of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, state television has broadcast completion events of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The director of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, recently said in an interview that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our enemies".

Previous Roots of the Tension

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, the territory was administered by Italian rulers.

After World War II, it was then managed by the British military before becoming a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s the ruler terminated this agreement and the region became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long internal conflict ensued, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then confirmed by Eritreans in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the exact location of their shared boundary, leading to hostilities in 1998.

Even though this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors remained at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders signed a statement that the war was finished – a move that earned Abiy the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then allies in the country's 2020-2022 armed struggle in Tigray.

Yet diplomatic connections have since broken down again.