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Increasing apprehensions have emerged about the possibility of armed conflict among Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has escalated in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for entry to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has sparked a intense war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in last year that his country's access to the sea was an vital issue, statements that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Ties between the two countries have regularly been difficult. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopia in 1993, making it without sea access.

Five years later, 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 directly stated control of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and hinted at the desire to take it by force.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "error" of losing entry to the sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "rectified in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

In the face of continuous threats from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been restricted to brief comments on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for sea access calling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a strategy of claiming back previous domains.

Government spokespeople alerted on mid-September that moves to justify "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Border

Currently, there are few indications of major military movements in the border areas between the neighboring states.

However, in Ethiopia, government media has shown graduation ceremonies of many recruits at various military training camps.

The head of human resources department of the armed forces, the officer, recently said in an interview that the military was in a "secure situation" as "many thousands of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Historical Background of the Dispute

For decades from the late 19th century, Eritrea was governed by Italian rulers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the British administration before evolving into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this agreement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A extended internal conflict followed, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then confirmed by voters in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the exact location of their shared boundary, resulting in war in 1998.

Although this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations stayed at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders agreed to a announcement that the war was concluded – a decision that gained the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The two governments were then partners in Ethiopia's recent internal conflict in the northern region.

Yet ties have subsequently deteriorated again.