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Growing worries exist regarding the chance of armed conflict involving East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as confrontational rhetoric has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for passage to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has sparked a heated verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in 2023 that his country's access to the sea was an vital issue, statements that Eritrea dismissed.

Relations between the two countries have often been tense. After a prolonged struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it without sea access.

Subsequently, a military clash started in which more than 100,000 people died.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopia's Officials

Abiy and army chief the army commander have directly stated control of Eritrean maritime facility of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and hinted at the intention to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "rectified soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "by force".

Eritrea's Answer to the Statements

Amid ongoing threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to brief comments on social media from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for maritime entry describing it as "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a strategy of claiming back previous domains.

Government spokespeople alerted on 16 September that efforts to validate "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Activities on the Region

So far, there are no reports of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

However, in the country, state television has broadcast completion events of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The director of personnel division of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an discussion that the military was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Previous Roots of the Dispute

For over fifty years from 1890, the territory was ruled by colonial powers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British military before evolving into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this agreement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year armed struggle followed, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Independence was then endorsed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their common border, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Even though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries stayed at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The two signed a statement that the hostilities was over – a move that gained the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's recent civil war in Tigray.

But ties have subsequently deteriorated again.