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Growing apprehensions are present over the possibility of military engagement between Horn of Africa neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as aggressive rhetoric has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has sparked a heated rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in 2023 that his nation's sea access was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrea rejected.

Ties between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. After a long-standing battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a long sea border, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it without sea access.

Subsequently, a border war broke out in which more than 100,000 people lost their lives.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopia's Government

Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have directly stated ownership of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and suggested the intention to take it by force.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrean Answer to the Claims

Despite persistent threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been confined to concise remarks on X from Communications Head Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for sea access calling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a approach of reclaiming former lands.

Government spokespeople alerted on 16 September that efforts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Border

Currently, there are no reports of major military movements in the boundary zones between the neighboring states.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has shown graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The head of staff section of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an discussion that the army was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Historical Origins of the Dispute

For decades from 1890, the territory was administered by colonial powers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British military before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this arrangement and the region became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war followed, ending with military reversal in 1991. Sovereignty was then confirmed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

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

Although this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries stayed at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader the president. The two agreed to a declaration that the war was concluded – a decision that won Abiy the international recognition.

The two governments were then allies in the country's previous armed struggle in the northern region.

Yet relations have later worsened again.