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Mounting apprehensions have emerged regarding the possibility of armed conflict among East African neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile discourse has intensified in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for access to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has triggered a intense war of words.

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

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have often been tense. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, making it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a border war erupted in which numerous people lost their lives.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the wish to seize it militarily.

Recently, the Prime Minister said the country's "mistake" of losing access to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "rectified in the future".

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

Eritrea's Reaction to the Threats

Despite ongoing warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to short statements on social media from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea calling it "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a policy of retaking former lands.

The information ministry warned on recently that moves to validate "obvious provocation" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Activities on the Ground

Currently, there are little evidence of major military movements in the boundary zones between the neighboring states.

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

The leader of human resources department of the defense force, General Hachalu, recently said in an interview that the military was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of youths" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Past Origins of the Tension

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

After World War II, it was then controlled by the British military before evolving into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

But in 1962 the ruler cancelled this arrangement and the region became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year civil war ensued, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then approved by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Although this concluded in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations continued at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President President Isaias. The two signed a statement that the conflict was concluded – a decision that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The both administrations were then partners in Ethiopia's previous internal conflict in Tigray.

Yet diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated again.