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Growing worries are present about the chance of armed conflict among Horn of Africa neighbours, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as aggressive language has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a intense war of words.

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in last year that his nation's access to the sea was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrea dismissed.

Ties between the both governments have often been tense. Following a long-standing struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

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

Current Comments from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and suggested the desire to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "error" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "addressed tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be returned "by force".

Eritrean Reaction to the Claims

In the face of ongoing challenges from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been limited to brief comments on online platforms from Information Minister the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for sea access describing it as "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a approach of claiming back previous domains.

The information ministry alerted on recently that moves to validate "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Ground

There have been few indications of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in the country, national TV has shown training completions of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The head of personnel division of the armed forces, the officer, commented lately in an interview that the military was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Previous Roots of the Dispute

For decades from the late 19th century, the territory was ruled by Italian colonisers.

Following World War II, it was then controlled by the British administration before turning into a associated territory of Ethiopia.

However in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor terminated this system and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long armed struggle followed, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then confirmed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, causing war in 1998.

Though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the two nations continued at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrean President the president. The two endorsed a statement that the hostilities was concluded – a move that gained Abiy the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then allies in Ethiopia's recent civil war in the northern region.

However diplomatic connections have since broken down once more.