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Mounting apprehensions are present about the potential of military engagement involving Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive language has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a fierce rhetorical conflict.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in last year that his government's sea access was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrea dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have regularly been difficult. After a long-standing fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a long maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it without sea access.

In 1998, a territorial conflict erupted in which numerous people lost their lives.

Current Comments from Ethiopia's Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted control of Eritrean maritime facility of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and hinted at the wish to take it by force.

In early September, the Prime Minister said the country's "blunder" of losing access to the sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "corrected tomorrow".

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

Eritrea's Response to the Claims

In the face of ongoing threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been confined to short statements on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for sea access labeling it "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a approach of claiming back previous domains.

Government spokespeople warned on recently that moves to justify "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Activities on the Border

So far, there are little evidence of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in the country, state television has shown training completions of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The director of staff section of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an discussion that the army was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Past Background of the Dispute

For over fifty years from 1890, Eritrea was ruled by Italian rulers.

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

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this arrangement and the region became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A extended internal conflict followed, concluding with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then endorsed by voters in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the exact location of their mutual frontier, causing conflict in 1998.

Though this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries continued at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader the president. The two signed a declaration that the war was over – a action that won Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then allies in Ethiopia's previous armed struggle in the northern region.

But diplomatic connections have later worsened again.