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Increasing worries are present over the possibility of armed conflict between Horn of Africa neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as aggressive language has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for access to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a fierce verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in 2023 that his nation's access to the sea was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Relations between the two countries have often been tense. Following a long-standing struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it cut off from the sea.

Subsequently, a military clash erupted in which over a hundred thousand people lost their lives.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have publicly asserted control of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and suggested the desire to capture it through military means.

In early September, the Prime Minister said the country's "blunder" of losing access to the sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "rectified in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrean Reaction to the Threats

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

The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for sea access describing it as "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a policy of claiming back former lands.

Eritrean authorities warned on 16 September that attempts to justify "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Region

Currently, there are few indications of large-scale army activities in the boundary zones between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, government media has shown training completions of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The head of human resources department of the military, the officer, recently said in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Previous Origins of the Conflict

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, the territory was administered by colonial powers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British administration before evolving into a federated part of Ethiopia.

Yet in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor ended this agreement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year civil war occurred, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Independence was then endorsed by voters in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their common border, causing conflict in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations stayed at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders agreed to a declaration that the conflict was finished – a decision that earned the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The two governments were then partners in the country's recent armed struggle in the northern region.

However diplomatic connections have since broken down anew.