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Increasing worries are present over the potential of armed conflict involving Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as aggressive rhetoric has escalated in the last month.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

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

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in the previous year that his country's access to the sea was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrea dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have frequently been strained. After a decades-long battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a territorial conflict broke out in which numerous people were killed.

Current Comments from Ethiopia's Leadership

Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and suggested the wish to capture it through military means.

In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing access to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "rectified in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "by force".

Eritrean Reaction to the Claims

Despite persistent challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to brief comments on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for maritime entry calling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a approach of reclaiming lost territory.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on 16 September that moves to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Border

So far, there are no reports of major military movements in the boundary zones between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in the country, government media has broadcast training completions of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The director of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, stated recently in an discussion that the military was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Past Roots of the Conflict

For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was administered by colonial powers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British military before turning into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s the ruler ended this agreement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict followed, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then confirmed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, causing conflict in 1998.

Though this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations remained at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders agreed to a announcement that the hostilities was concluded – a move that earned Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

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

Yet diplomatic connections have later worsened anew.