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Increasing worries are present over the chance of military engagement involving East African countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational discourse has escalated in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for access to the sea coast through Eritrea has sparked a heated war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in the previous year that his government's access to the sea was an existential matter, statements that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have often been tense. Following a prolonged fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, making it without sea access.

In 1998, a border war started in which more than 100,000 people lost their lives.

Current Statements from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have directly stated ownership of Eritrean coastal city of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and hinted at the intention to seize it militarily.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "corrected in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrean Answer to the Statements

Amid persistent challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been confined to concise remarks on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for maritime entry calling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a strategy of retaking lost territory.

Government spokespeople cautioned on 16 September that efforts to validate "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Region

There have been little evidence of major military movements in the boundary zones between the two countries.

However, in Ethiopia, government media has displayed training completions of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The director of human resources department of the defense force, the officer, commented lately in an conversation that the army was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Historical Background of the Dispute

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, Eritrea was governed by colonial powers.

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

Yet in the early 1960s the ruler cancelled this arrangement and Eritrea became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long internal conflict ensued, ending with the government's loss in 1991. Independence was then endorsed by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, leading to conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries stayed at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders endorsed a announcement that the war was concluded – a decision that gained Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The both administrations were then partners in the country's 2020-2022 civil war in Tigray.

But relations have since broken down again.