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Mounting apprehensions have emerged regarding the potential of military engagement involving Horn of Africa neighbors, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile discourse has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for access to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has sparked a intense verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in last year that his government's access to the sea was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Ties between the neighboring nations have often been tense. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a border war started in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Latest Statements from Ethiopia's Leadership

Abiy and military leader the army commander have directly stated ownership of Eritrean southern port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and hinted at the wish to capture it through military means.

Recently, the Prime Minister said the country's "mistake" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "addressed tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrea's Answer to the Statements

In the face of persistent challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to brief comments on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for sea access labeling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a approach of claiming back previous domains.

Eritrean authorities warned on 16 September that moves to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Region

Currently, there are few indications of major military movements in the boundary zones between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in the country, government media has shown graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The leader of staff section of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an discussion that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of youths" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Previous Background of the Tension

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

Following World War II, it was then administered by the British administration before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year armed struggle ensued, concluding with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then confirmed by Eritreans in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, causing hostilities in 1998.

Although this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries remained at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders endorsed a declaration that the hostilities was finished – a decision that won the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The both administrations were then allies in the country's recent internal conflict in Tigray.

Yet diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated again.