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Mounting worries exist over the possibility of armed conflict involving East African countries, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as aggressive language has intensified in the last month.

What Has Ethiopia Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a heated war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in the previous year that his nation's sea access was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrea dismissed.

Relations between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a prolonged struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it without sea access.

Five years later, a territorial conflict erupted in which numerous people lost their lives.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and implied the intention to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of losing entry to the sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "addressed tomorrow".

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

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

Amid continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to brief comments on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea describing it as "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a strategy of reclaiming lost territory.

Government spokespeople cautioned on mid-September that efforts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Ground

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

Nevertheless, in the country, state television has shown graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The director of human resources department of the armed forces, the officer, recently said in an conversation that the military was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Previous Roots of the Conflict

For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was ruled by Italian colonisers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British administration before turning into a associated territory of Ethiopia.

However in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A extended armed struggle followed, finishing with military reversal in 1991. Sovereignty was then approved by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries stayed at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders endorsed a statement that the conflict was over – a action that gained Abiy the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then partners in Ethiopia's previous civil war in the northern region.

But diplomatic connections have later worsened again.