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Increasing apprehensions are present regarding the chance of armed conflict among East African neighbors, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile language has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has provoked a fierce rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in last year that his nation's sea access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrea dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the both governments have often been tense. Following a decades-long battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopia in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

In 1998, a border war erupted in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Current Comments from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and suggested the desire to capture it through military means.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

In the face of continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to brief comments on social media from Communications Head the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for sea access calling it "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a policy of reclaiming former lands.

Eritrean authorities warned on mid-September that efforts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Border

So far, there are few indications of major military movements in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in the country, state television has shown completion events of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The head of staff section of the armed forces, the officer, commented lately in an discussion that the military was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Previous Background of the Tension

For decades from the late 19th century, Eritrea was governed by Italian rulers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British administration before turning into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this system and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year civil war ensued, concluding with military reversal in 1991. Sovereignty was then approved by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Even though this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors remained at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a announcement that the conflict was concluded – a action that earned Abiy the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then partners in Ethiopia's previous civil war in Tigray.

However ties have since broken down again.