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Increasing worries have emerged about the potential of armed conflict between East African countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrea has triggered a intense rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in 2023 that his country's maritime access was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrea ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the both governments have often been tense. After a prolonged struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a extensive sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it without sea access.

Five years later, a border war erupted in which numerous people died.

Current Comments from Ethiopia's Leadership

Abiy and army chief the army commander have directly stated ownership of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and hinted at the desire to take it by force.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea secession would be "rectified in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrean Answer to the Claims

In the face of continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been restricted to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry describing it as "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a policy of claiming back previous domains.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on mid-September that attempts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Region

Currently, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the neighboring states.

However, in the country, government media has shown training completions of numerous trainees at multiple army bases.

The director of human resources department of the defense force, the officer, commented lately in an interview that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Historical Roots of the Tension

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

After the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the UK forces before evolving into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

But in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year internal conflict ensued, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then endorsed by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the exact location of their common border, causing war in 1998.

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

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrean President President Isaias. The both leaders endorsed a announcement that the conflict was over – a move that gained the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The both administrations were then allies in the country's recent armed struggle in Tigray.

But diplomatic connections have since broken down again.