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Increasing concerns are present about the chance of military engagement involving Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational language has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has sparked a heated war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in the previous year that his nation's maritime access was an vital issue, statements that Eritrea ignored.

Relations between the two countries have frequently been strained. Following a decades-long struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it without sea access.

Subsequently, a military clash broke out in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Recent Comments from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted control of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and hinted at the intention to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "mistake" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "corrected tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "through military action".

Eritrean Answer to the Statements

Despite continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been confined to concise remarks on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for sea access calling it "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a approach of claiming back lost territory.

The information ministry warned on 16 September that attempts to validate "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Activities on the Region

So far, there are little evidence of major military movements in the border areas between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, state television has displayed training completions of many recruits at various military training camps.

The director of staff section of the armed forces, the officer, stated recently in an conversation that the army was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Previous Roots of the Dispute

For over fifty years from 1890, Eritrea was administered by Italian colonisers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the UK forces before turning into a federated part of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this arrangement and Eritrea became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long armed struggle occurred, concluding with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then endorsed by Eritreans in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the exact location of their mutual frontier, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Although this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors continued at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders endorsed a statement that the hostilities was concluded – a move that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The both administrations were then allies in Ethiopia's recent internal conflict in the northern region.

However relations have since broken down once more.