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Growing worries have emerged regarding the possibility of military engagement among East African countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive rhetoric has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a fierce rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in last year that his government's maritime access was an vital issue, statements that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Relations between the neighboring nations have often been tense. After a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, making it without sea access.

Five years later, a territorial conflict broke out in which numerous people lost their lives.

Current Remarks from Ethiopia's Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted control of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and implied the wish to seize it militarily.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "error" of being denied passage to the sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "addressed tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrean Answer to the Claims

Amid continuous challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to concise remarks on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry labeling it "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a policy of claiming back former lands.

Government spokespeople cautioned on recently that moves to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Border

So far, there are no reports of major military movements in the frontier regions between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, state television has broadcast completion events of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The director of human resources department of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an conversation that the military was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of youths" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Past Origins of the Conflict

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

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the UK forces before becoming a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

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

A extended civil war ensued, finishing with the government's loss in 1991. Independence was then endorsed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, leading to conflict in 1998.

Though this ended in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors stayed at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The two agreed to a announcement that the hostilities was over – a action that earned the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The both administrations were then partners in the country's previous civil war in the northern region.

However ties have later worsened anew.