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Increasing worries exist about the possibility of armed conflict between East African countries, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile language has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Said?

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

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in last year that his nation's access to the sea was an existential matter, statements that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Relations between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a military clash started in which numerous people were killed.

Current Comments from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrean southern port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and suggested the wish to capture it through military means.

Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of losing entry to the sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrean Answer to the Statements

Despite ongoing challenges from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been limited to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for maritime entry describing it as "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a approach of reclaiming lost territory.

Government spokespeople alerted on recently that attempts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Activities on the Ground

Currently, there are no reports of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has displayed completion events of numerous trainees at multiple army bases.

The head of personnel division of the defense force, General Hachalu, recently said in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of youths" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Historical Background of the Dispute

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

Following World War II, it was then controlled by the UK forces before evolving into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year armed struggle occurred, concluding with military reversal in the early 1990s. Independence was then approved by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, causing conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors continued at odds.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders endorsed a statement that the war was over – a action that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then partners in the country's 2020-2022 armed struggle in Tigray.

Yet relations have subsequently deteriorated anew.