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Increasing worries have emerged regarding the chance of military engagement involving East African countries, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile language has ratcheted up in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for access to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a fierce verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in the previous year that his country's access to the sea was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrea ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. After a prolonged struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it without sea access.

Five years later, a border war broke out in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopia's Officials

Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted control of Eritrean maritime facility of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and suggested the desire to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "error" of being denied passage to the sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "rectified tomorrow".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Statements

Amid persistent warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to concise remarks on social media from Communications Head the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea calling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a approach of retaking lost territory.

The information ministry warned on mid-September that efforts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Ground

There have been little evidence of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in the country, state television has displayed graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The leader of human resources department of the military, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an conversation that the army was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Historical Origins of the Conflict

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

After Italy's defeat, it was then administered by the British administration before becoming a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

But in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this agreement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A extended internal conflict followed, concluding with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then endorsed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, leading to war in 1998.

Although this finished in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries remained at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders signed a announcement that the conflict was concluded – a action that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then allies in the country's recent armed struggle in Tigray.

But diplomatic connections have later worsened anew.