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Increasing apprehensions are present about the potential of military engagement involving East African countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has sparked a intense war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in the previous year that his country's access to the sea was an vital issue, comments that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Ties between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. After a decades-long battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a long maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopia in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

In 1998, a territorial conflict started in which numerous people died.

Latest Comments from Ethiopian Officials

Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and implied the desire to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "rectified in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "using武力".

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

Amid ongoing challenges from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been limited to brief comments on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for maritime entry labeling it "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a strategy of retaking previous domains.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on mid-September that moves to justify "obvious provocation" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Movements on the Ground

So far, there are no reports of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, state television has displayed graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The head of staff section of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an conversation that the military was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of youths" were entering service, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Past Background of the Conflict

For over fifty years from 1890, the territory was governed by colonial powers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the British military before evolving into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

Yet in the early 1960s the ruler ended this system and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict followed, concluding with the government's loss in 1991. Autonomy was then approved by the population in a vote in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the exact location of their shared boundary, causing conflict in 1998.

Though this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries continued at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a statement that the conflict was concluded – a move that gained Abiy the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in Ethiopia's previous armed struggle in the northern region.

Yet ties have since broken down again.