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Mounting concerns exist regarding the chance of armed conflict involving Horn of Africa neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as hostile discourse has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has triggered a intense verbal exchange.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in 2023 that his nation's maritime access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Ties between the both governments have often been tense. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a long maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, making it landlocked.

Subsequently, a border war erupted in which numerous people died.

Recent Comments from Ethiopia's Government

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have directly stated ownership of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and suggested the desire to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing access to the sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "corrected tomorrow".

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

Eritrea's Answer to the Statements

Amid continuous warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to brief comments on X from Information Minister Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for sea access describing it as "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a approach of retaking lost territory.

Government spokespeople cautioned on recently that attempts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Activities on the Border

There have been little evidence of major military movements in the boundary zones between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in the country, state television has displayed completion events of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The leader of staff section of the military, the officer, stated recently in an conversation that the army was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Historical Roots of the Conflict

For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was ruled by Italian rulers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the UK forces before becoming a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the ruler cancelled this system and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war followed, ending with the government's loss in 1991. Autonomy was then approved by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the governments in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Though this ended in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors stayed at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a announcement that the hostilities was finished – a action that gained Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then partners in Ethiopia's previous civil war in the northern region.

Yet ties have since broken down once more.