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Mounting concerns are present over the possibility of armed conflict involving Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as confrontational discourse has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a fierce verbal exchange.

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

Relations between the neighboring nations have often been tense. After a prolonged battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a extensive sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, making it without sea access.

In 1998, a border war started in which more than 100,000 people lost their lives.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated ownership of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the intention to take it by force.

In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "corrected soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

Despite ongoing challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been restricted to short statements on X from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea labeling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a policy of retaking former lands.

The information ministry cautioned on mid-September that efforts to justify "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Region

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

However, in Ethiopia, national TV has displayed completion events of numerous trainees at multiple army bases.

The leader of personnel division of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an interview that the military was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Past Roots 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 administered by the British military before becoming a integrated region of Ethiopia.

Yet in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor ended this arrangement and Eritrea became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long armed struggle occurred, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then approved by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their common border, resulting in war in 1998.

Though this concluded 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 Eritrean President President Isaias. The two signed a announcement that the hostilities was over – a decision that earned the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then partners in the country's previous internal conflict in the northern region.

But diplomatic connections have since broken down once more.