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Increasing concerns have emerged regarding the potential of military engagement involving East African countries, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational language has escalated in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a fierce verbal exchange.

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in the previous year that his nation's access to the sea was an existential matter, statements that Eritrea rejected.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. Following a long-standing struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it without sea access.

In 1998, a border war erupted in which numerous people were killed.

Latest Comments from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and hinted at the wish to seize it militarily.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "corrected in the future".

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

Eritrean Response to the Statements

Despite continuous challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been limited to brief comments on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for maritime entry describing it as "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a policy of reclaiming former lands.

Eritrean authorities warned on recently that attempts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Region

So far, there are little evidence of major military movements in the boundary zones between the two countries.

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

The head of staff section of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of young people" were entering service, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Previous Background of the Conflict

For over fifty years from 1890, Eritrea was governed by colonial powers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the British military before becoming a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this agreement and the region became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war ensued, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Autonomy was then endorsed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their common border, causing hostilities in 1998.

Although this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors remained at odds.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders endorsed a declaration that the conflict was concluded – a action that gained the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The both administrations were then cooperators in the country's previous internal conflict in the northern region.

But diplomatic connections have since broken down once more.