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Growing concerns have emerged over the possibility of military engagement between Horn of Africa neighbors, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational language has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a heated verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in last year that his government's sea access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Ties between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. Following a decades-long struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long sea border, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

Subsequently, a border war erupted in which more than 100,000 people lost their lives.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and hinted at the intention to capture it through military means.

Recently, the Prime Minister said the country's "error" of losing entry to the sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "rectified soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrea's Answer to the Statements

In the face of continuous warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to concise remarks on online platforms from Information Minister the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for maritime entry labeling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "expansionism" – a strategy of reclaiming previous domains.

The information ministry alerted on recently that attempts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Region

So far, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has broadcast graduation ceremonies of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The head of staff section of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an interview that the defense forces was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Past Origins of the Dispute

For decades from 1890, the territory was ruled by colonial powers.

After World War II, it was then administered by the British military before evolving into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor terminated this arrangement and the region became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long internal conflict occurred, concluding with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then endorsed by the population in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Although this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations remained at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrean President the president. The two endorsed a declaration that the war was over – a action that gained the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then allies in Ethiopia's previous armed struggle in Tigray.

However relations have later worsened anew.