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Increasing concerns are present over the potential of armed conflict between East African countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile language has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has sparked a fierce verbal exchange.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in the previous year that his nation's access to the sea was an vital issue, comments that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Relations between the two countries have often been tense. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

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

Recent Statements from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrean maritime facility of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and implied the intention to take it by force.

Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of being denied passage to the sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "rectified tomorrow".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrea's Answer to the Claims

Despite ongoing warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to concise remarks on X from Information Minister the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for maritime entry labeling it "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a policy of reclaiming former lands.

Government spokespeople cautioned on recently that attempts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Activities on the Ground

So far, there are little evidence of major military movements in the border areas between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, government media has broadcast graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The leader of human resources department of the military, the officer, recently said in an discussion that the military was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Past Roots of the Tension

For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was administered by Italian rulers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the British military before turning into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this system and the region became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A extended internal conflict occurred, ending with military reversal in 1991. Autonomy was then confirmed by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, resulting in war in 1998.

Although this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors continued at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders signed a statement that the hostilities was over – a action that gained the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The both administrations were then partners in the country's 2020-2022 civil war in the northern region.

However diplomatic connections have later worsened once more.