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Increasing apprehensions are present regarding the potential of military engagement among East African neighbors, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has escalated in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Stated?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has sparked a intense verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in the previous year that his country's maritime access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Ties between the both governments have regularly been difficult. Following a long-standing struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a territorial conflict broke out in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Current Remarks from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and hinted at the intention to capture it through military means.

Recently, the Prime Minister said the country's "blunder" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "rectified tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "using武力".

Eritrean Reaction to the Claims

Amid continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been limited to concise remarks on social media from Communications Head Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for maritime entry calling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a approach of reclaiming former lands.

The information ministry cautioned on mid-September that efforts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Border

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

However, in Ethiopia, state television has broadcast training completions of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The director of human resources department of the military, the officer, commented lately in an interview that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Previous Background of the Tension

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, the territory was ruled by Italian colonisers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British military before becoming a integrated region of Ethiopia.

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

A extended civil war followed, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then confirmed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their common border, leading to hostilities in 1998.

Although this finished in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries continued at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a announcement that the war was over – a decision that gained the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then allies in Ethiopia's previous internal conflict in the northern region.

Yet diplomatic connections have since broken down again.