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Mounting worries exist about the chance of armed conflict between Horn of Africa neighbors, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational language has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for access to the sea coast through Eritrea has triggered a intense war of words.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in the previous year that his country's access to the sea was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrea ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a border war broke out in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Leadership

Abiy and military leader the army commander have directly stated control of Eritrea's maritime facility of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and suggested the wish to take it by force.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "corrected tomorrow".

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

Eritrea's Reaction to the Claims

Amid ongoing threats from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been restricted to brief comments on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry calling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a strategy of reclaiming former lands.

Government spokespeople warned on mid-September that efforts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Border

So far, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

Nevertheless, in the country, state television has broadcast graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The leader of personnel division of the defense force, General Hachalu, recently said in an interview that the military was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Previous Origins of the Conflict

For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was governed by colonial powers.

After World War II, it was then administered by the UK forces before becoming a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this arrangement and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year civil war occurred, ending with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then confirmed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries continued at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two endorsed a announcement that the war was over – a decision that earned Abiy the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then partners in Ethiopia's recent civil war in Tigray.

However diplomatic connections have since broken down anew.