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Mounting apprehensions are present about the potential of military engagement involving Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile rhetoric has escalated in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for entry to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has triggered a fierce verbal exchange.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in last year that his government's access to the sea was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Relations between the both governments have often been tense. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a border war started in which more than 100,000 people lost their lives.

Current Statements from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and suggested the wish to seize it militarily.

In early September, the Prime Minister said the country's "mistake" of being denied passage to the sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "addressed soon".

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

Eritrea's Response to the Threats

Despite ongoing threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to brief comments on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for maritime entry describing it as "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a strategy of claiming back lost territory.

Government spokespeople cautioned on 16 September that efforts to justify "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Activities on the Border

Currently, there are no reports of major military movements in the frontier regions between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in the country, government media has displayed graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The head of human resources department of the military, General Hachalu, stated recently in an conversation that the military was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of young people" were entering service, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Past Roots of the Dispute

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, the territory was governed by Italian rulers.

After Italy's defeat, it was then administered by the British administration before evolving into a federated part of Ethiopia.

Yet in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor ended this arrangement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war ensued, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Independence was then approved by voters in a vote in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their common border, leading to conflict in 1998.

Even though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors remained at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President President Isaias. The both leaders agreed to a announcement that the hostilities was over – a move that gained the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then allies in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 armed struggle in the northern region.

However ties have subsequently deteriorated again.