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Increasing concerns exist over the potential of armed conflict between Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as hostile language has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a heated verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in last year that his government's sea access was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Ties between the neighboring nations have often been tense. Following a long-standing fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it landlocked.

Subsequently, a territorial conflict started in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Current Comments from Ethiopia's Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrea's coastal city of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and hinted at the desire to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "addressed tomorrow".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Statements

Despite continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been confined to short statements on social media from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for maritime entry describing it as "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of claiming back former lands.

The information ministry warned on recently that efforts to justify "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Movements on the Border

Currently, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in the country, government media has shown training completions of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The leader of staff section of the military, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an conversation that the army was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Previous Roots of the Tension

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

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the UK forces before turning into a federated part of Ethiopia.

But in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this agreement and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long armed struggle followed, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Autonomy was then approved by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, leading to conflict in 1998.

Though this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations continued at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a declaration that the conflict was over – a move that earned the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then allies in the country's previous internal conflict in Tigray.

But relations have subsequently deteriorated anew.