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Growing concerns exist over the chance of armed conflict involving East African countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile rhetoric has intensified in the last month.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for access to the sea coast through Eritrea has sparked a intense rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in the previous year that his country's access to the sea was an vital issue, statements that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Ties between the two countries have regularly been difficult. After a prolonged struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

Five years later, a military clash broke out in which numerous people died.

Recent Remarks from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrean maritime facility of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and suggested the desire to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said the country's "error" of losing entry to the sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "rectified in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be returned "using武力".

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

Despite continuous threats from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been limited to concise remarks on X from Information Minister Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea describing it as "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "expansionism" – a strategy of reclaiming former lands.

Government spokespeople cautioned on recently that efforts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Region

Currently, there are no reports of large-scale army activities in the boundary zones between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, government media has shown completion events of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The leader of staff section of the defense force, General Hachalu, commented lately in an interview that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Historical Background of the Dispute

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

After World War II, it was then controlled by the British administration before becoming a integrated region of Ethiopia.

However in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this system and the region became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long civil war occurred, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Independence was then confirmed by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the exact location of their shared boundary, resulting in war in 1998.

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

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

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

However diplomatic connections have since broken down anew.