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Mounting apprehensions exist about the potential of military engagement among Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive rhetoric has escalated in the last month.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrea has sparked a heated verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in 2023 that his nation's access to the sea was an vital issue, comments that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. After a prolonged struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

Subsequently, a border war erupted in which numerous people died.

Current Comments from Ethiopia's Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted control of Eritrean coastal city of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and hinted at the desire to capture it through military means.

Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "addressed in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrean Answer to the Threats

Amid continuous threats from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been limited to brief comments on X from Information Minister Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea calling it "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a policy of reclaiming lost territory.

The information ministry cautioned on recently that attempts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Movements on the Border

There have been little evidence of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in the country, government media has broadcast completion events of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The director of human resources department of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an interview that the army was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our enemies".

Past Origins of the Conflict

For decades from 1890, the territory was ruled by Italian colonisers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British administration before evolving into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

But in the early 1960s the ruler ended this system and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

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

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, leading to conflict in 1998.

Although this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors remained at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrean President President Isaias. The both leaders endorsed a declaration that the hostilities was concluded – a action that earned Abiy the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then partners in Ethiopia's recent armed struggle in Tigray.

However relations have since broken down anew.