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Increasing worries have emerged over the chance of military engagement between Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational language has intensified in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has triggered a intense war of words.

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in the previous year that his nation's maritime access was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrea dismissed.

Relations between the both governments have regularly been difficult. Following a prolonged battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a extensive sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

Five years later, a border war started in which over a hundred thousand people were killed.

Recent Comments from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed ownership of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the desire to seize it militarily.

Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Statements

In the face of continuous challenges from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been confined to brief comments on social media from Communications Head the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for maritime entry labeling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "expansionism" – a policy of claiming back previous domains.

Government spokespeople alerted on 16 September that moves to justify "blatant hostility" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Region

There have been little evidence of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the both nations.

However, in Ethiopia, government media has shown completion events of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The director of staff section of the military, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an interview that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Historical Origins of the Tension

For decades from 1890, Eritrea was governed by Italian rulers.

Following World War II, it was then administered by the British military before evolving into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

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

A extended civil war occurred, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Independence was then approved by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their common border, resulting in war in 1998.

Even though this ended in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries stayed at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a announcement that the conflict was finished – a decision that gained Abiy the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then partners in the country's previous armed struggle in Tigray.

But ties have since broken down again.