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Mounting apprehensions exist over the potential of armed conflict between East African countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational discourse has ratcheted up in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for access to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has provoked a fierce verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in the previous year that his government's maritime access was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Ties between the both governments have often been tense. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, rendering it landlocked.

In 1998, a military clash started in which over a hundred thousand people were killed.

Latest Statements from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and hinted at the intention to seize it militarily.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of losing entry to the sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrea's Response to the Threats

In the face of ongoing warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to short statements on social media from Communications Head the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for sea access describing it as "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "expansionism" – a approach of claiming back former lands.

The information ministry alerted on recently that efforts to justify "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Activities on the Border

So far, there are little evidence of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the neighboring states.

However, in Ethiopia, government media has broadcast completion events of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The leader of staff section of the military, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Previous Roots of the Conflict

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, the territory was administered by colonial powers.

After World War II, it was then administered by the British administration before becoming a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

However in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this arrangement and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long armed struggle occurred, ending with the government's loss in 1991. Autonomy was then endorsed by voters in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, resulting in war in 1998.

Even though this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries continued at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a statement that the conflict was finished – a decision that gained Abiy the international recognition.

The two governments were then partners in Ethiopia's recent internal conflict in the northern region.

However ties have since broken down once more.