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Increasing concerns have emerged regarding the possibility of armed conflict involving East African countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has escalated in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a fierce rhetorical conflict.

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in the previous year that his country's access to the sea was an vital issue, statements that Eritrea dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the both governments have often been tense. Following a long-standing fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

Subsequently, a military clash broke out in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrea's maritime facility of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the wish to seize it militarily.

Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing access to the sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "rectified soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrean Response to the Claims

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

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea calling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "expansionism" – a strategy of retaking former lands.

Government spokespeople alerted on mid-September that efforts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Ground

Currently, there are no reports of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the neighboring states.

However, in the country, state television has shown completion events of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The director of personnel division of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an interview that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Past Background of the Dispute

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, the territory was governed by Italian colonisers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the British administration before turning into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

However in 1962 the ruler terminated this agreement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war followed, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Independence was then approved by Eritreans in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their common border, leading to conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations 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 statement that the hostilities was concluded – a action that earned Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in the country's previous internal conflict in the northern region.

Yet relations have since broken down again.