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Increasing worries have emerged about the chance of warfare among Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive language has escalated in the last month.

What Has Ethiopia Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for access to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has provoked a fierce war of words.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in last year that his nation's access to the sea was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have frequently been strained. After a long-standing battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it landlocked.

Five years later, a border war broke out in which more than 100,000 people lost their lives.

Recent Comments from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated ownership of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the wish to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of being denied passage to the sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "addressed soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrean Answer to the Claims

In the face of persistent challenges from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been restricted to concise remarks on online platforms from Information Minister the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry calling it "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of retaking previous domains.

Eritrean authorities alerted on recently that attempts to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Border

Currently, there are no reports of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the two countries.

However, in the country, state television has broadcast graduation ceremonies of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The head of personnel division of the defense force, General Hachalu, commented lately in an interview that the army was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Historical Origins of the Conflict

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

Following World War II, it was then administered by the British administration before becoming a associated territory of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the ruler terminated this arrangement and the region became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year civil war followed, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then confirmed by voters in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, resulting in war in 1998.

Although this concluded in a truce in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors stayed at odds.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders signed a statement that the hostilities was finished – a action that gained the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The both administrations were then allies in the country's 2020-2022 internal conflict in the northern region.

However ties have later worsened again.