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Growing worries are present regarding the potential of military engagement between Horn of Africa neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational discourse has escalated in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has sparked a heated verbal exchange.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in the previous year that his nation's maritime access was an vital issue, statements that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Ties between the neighboring nations have often been tense. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, making it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a border war broke out in which numerous people were killed.

Recent Comments from Ethiopia's Officials

Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed ownership of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and hinted at the desire to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of being denied passage to the sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "corrected soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Statements

Amid continuous challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been confined to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for sea access describing it as "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a policy of retaking lost territory.

The information ministry cautioned on mid-September that attempts to validate "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Region

So far, there are little evidence of large-scale army activities in the boundary zones between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, government media has broadcast graduation ceremonies of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The leader of staff section of the armed forces, the officer, commented lately in an interview that the army was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Previous Background of the Dispute

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

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British administration before turning into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

However in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this arrangement and Eritrea became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A extended armed struggle followed, ending with the government's loss in 1991. Autonomy was then confirmed by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their common border, resulting in war in 1998.

Although this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries stayed at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a statement that the hostilities was finished – a decision that won Abiy the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in Ethiopia's previous internal conflict in Tigray.

However relations have later worsened anew.