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Increasing worries have emerged over the chance of military engagement involving East African countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational language has intensified in the last month.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has triggered a fierce war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in last year that his government's sea access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. Following a prolonged battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

Five years later, a border war broke out in which over a hundred thousand people were killed.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopian Officials

Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed ownership of Eritrean coastal city of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the wish to take it by force.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "error" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "rectified soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrean Reaction to the Claims

In the face of continuous threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to brief comments on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for maritime entry describing it as "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a policy of claiming back former lands.

The information ministry warned on recently that attempts to justify "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Movements on the Ground

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

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, state television has shown completion events of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The leader of personnel division of the military, the officer, commented lately in an conversation that the military was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Past Roots of the Dispute

For decades from the late 19th century, Eritrea was governed by Italian rulers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then administered by the UK forces before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this system and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A extended armed struggle followed, concluding with military reversal in 1991. Autonomy was then approved by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries continued at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two endorsed a declaration that the war was finished – a action that won the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The two governments were then cooperators in Ethiopia's previous civil war in the northern region.

Yet relations have later worsened again.