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Mounting concerns exist regarding the chance of warfare between Horn of Africa neighbors, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational discourse has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Has Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a intense war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in the previous year that his nation's maritime access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrea rejected.

Relations between the two countries have frequently been strained. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long sea border, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

In 1998, a territorial conflict started in which over a hundred thousand people lost their lives.

Latest Statements from Ethiopia's Government

Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated ownership of Eritrean coastal city of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and hinted at the desire to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "rectified in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "through military action".

Eritrean Answer to the Threats

Amid persistent warnings from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been limited to short statements on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for sea access labeling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a policy of claiming back former lands.

Government spokespeople cautioned on mid-September that efforts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Preparations on the Border

Currently, there are little evidence of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has shown graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at multiple army bases.

The director of personnel division of the military, the officer, recently said in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Past Roots of the Tension

For decades from 1890, the territory was administered by Italian colonisers.

After World War II, it was then managed by the UK forces before evolving into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

However in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this agreement and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long internal conflict ensued, finishing with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then endorsed by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their common border, causing conflict in 1998.

Although this concluded in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries stayed at odds.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders agreed to a statement that the war was concluded – a action that gained Abiy the international recognition.

The both administrations were then partners in Ethiopia's previous civil war in Tigray.

However diplomatic connections have later worsened anew.