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Growing concerns are present over the possibility of armed conflict among Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational discourse has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrea has triggered a fierce verbal exchange.

The Ethiopian leader initially stated publicly in the previous year that his government's sea access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrea rejected.

Relations between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. After a long-standing fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a extensive maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

Subsequently, a border war started in which numerous people lost their lives.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopian Leadership

Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed ownership of Eritrea's coastal city of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and suggested the intention to take it by force.

In early September, the Prime Minister said the country's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "addressed soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrean Response to the Statements

Despite persistent challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to short statements on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for sea access calling it "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a approach of claiming back lost territory.

Government spokespeople warned on recently that moves to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Activities on the Ground

There have been no reports of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in the country, state television has displayed training completions of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The leader of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, recently said in an interview that the army was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Previous Origins of the Dispute

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

After World War II, it was then administered by the UK forces before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

However in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor terminated this agreement and the region became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year civil war followed, concluding with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then approved by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their common border, causing conflict in 1998.

Although this finished in a peace deal 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 the president. The both leaders signed a announcement that the hostilities was concluded – a move that gained the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then partners in the country's previous armed struggle in Tigray.

But relations have later worsened anew.