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Mounting apprehensions exist about the chance of military engagement between East African neighbors, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile language has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for entry to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a fierce rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in 2023 that his nation's access to the sea was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrea ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have often been tense. After a prolonged struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, making it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a territorial conflict started in which numerous people were killed.

Recent Remarks from Ethiopia's Government

Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated ownership of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the intention to take it by force.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "addressed soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador 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 threats from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been limited to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for maritime entry calling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a approach of claiming back lost territory.

Government spokespeople alerted on 16 September that attempts to validate "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Border

So far, there are few indications of major military movements in the border areas between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, state television has displayed graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The head of personnel division of the military, the officer, stated recently in an interview that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "many thousands of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Previous Origins of the Conflict

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

After Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the UK forces before becoming a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s the ruler cancelled this agreement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war occurred, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then approved by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, causing war in 1998.

Though this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors stayed at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a statement that the conflict was over – a decision that won Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then allies in the country's recent armed struggle in Tigray.

Yet relations have later worsened again.