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Growing concerns have emerged about the chance of military engagement involving Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive language has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a fierce rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in the previous year that his country's access to the sea was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrea ignored.

Ties between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a long maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, making it landlocked.

Five years later, a military clash started in which numerous people lost their lives.

Latest Comments from Ethiopian Leadership

Abiy and military leader the army commander have directly stated ownership of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and suggested the intention to take it by force.

On 1 September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "mistake" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "addressed in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrean Answer to the Threats

Despite ongoing warnings from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been restricted to concise remarks on X from Communications Head the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for maritime entry calling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a approach of claiming back former lands.

The information ministry cautioned on 16 September that efforts to validate "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Border

So far, there are little evidence of major military movements in the frontier regions between the two countries.

However, in the country, state television has displayed training completions of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The director of human resources department of the defense force, the officer, recently said in an discussion that the military was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Previous Origins of the Conflict

For over fifty years from 1890, the territory was governed by Italian colonisers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the UK forces before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this system and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year armed struggle occurred, ending with the government's loss in 1991. Autonomy was then endorsed by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, leading to hostilities in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations stayed at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrea's leader the president. The two agreed to a declaration that the conflict was finished – a decision that earned Abiy the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then partners in Ethiopia's previous internal conflict in Tigray.

However relations have later worsened once more.