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Growing worries have emerged regarding the chance of military engagement between Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive language has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for access to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a intense war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in the previous year that his country's access to the sea was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrea ignored.

Ties between the two countries have regularly been difficult. After a prolonged fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it cut off from the sea.

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

Recent Comments from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrean southern port of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and hinted at the wish to seize it militarily.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "rectified tomorrow".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrea's Answer to the Claims

Amid ongoing challenges from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been confined to concise remarks on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for sea access describing it as "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a policy of reclaiming previous domains.

Eritrean authorities warned on recently that moves to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Ground

Currently, there are few indications of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in the country, national TV has displayed completion events of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The head of staff section of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an conversation that the military was in a "secure situation" as "many thousands of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Historical Origins of the Dispute

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, Eritrea was governed by colonial powers.

After Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the British military before turning into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this system and Eritrea became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A extended internal conflict followed, ending with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then approved by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the exact location of their mutual frontier, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Although this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors continued at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a statement that the hostilities was over – a move that earned Abiy the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then allies in Ethiopia's previous armed struggle in the northern region.

However ties have subsequently deteriorated again.