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Increasing worries have emerged over the potential of armed conflict between Horn of Africa neighbors, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational language has escalated in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has triggered a intense verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in last year that his nation's maritime access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. Following a prolonged fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, making it cut off from the sea.

Subsequently, a border war erupted in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Current Comments from Ethiopia's Government

Abiy and military leader the army commander have openly claimed control of Eritrean maritime facility of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the wish to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said the country's "mistake" of losing entry to the sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "addressed soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrea's Response to the Statements

Despite ongoing challenges from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been restricted to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for sea access describing it as "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a policy of reclaiming lost territory.

Government spokespeople alerted on mid-September that moves to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Preparations on the Region

Currently, there are little evidence of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has broadcast training completions of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The director of personnel division of the military, the officer, recently said in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Previous Background of the Tension

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, Eritrea was governed by Italian colonisers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the British military before becoming a federated part of Ethiopia.

However in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this agreement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict occurred, concluding with the government's loss in 1991. Independence was then endorsed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their common border, leading to war in 1998.

Though this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries stayed at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two endorsed a statement that the conflict was finished – a move that gained the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in Ethiopia's previous internal conflict in the northern region.

But ties have subsequently deteriorated once more.