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Mounting worries exist over the potential of warfare among Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational language has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has provoked a intense verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in last year that his government's sea access was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrea rejected.

Relations between the two countries have often been tense. Following a prolonged fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it without sea access.

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

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrean coastal city of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and hinted at the wish to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "error" of losing access to the sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "corrected soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrean Reaction to the Statements

In the face of continuous challenges from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been confined to concise remarks on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea describing it as "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a strategy of reclaiming previous domains.

Government spokespeople cautioned on mid-September that moves to justify "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Activities on the Region

Currently, there are no reports of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the neighboring states.

Nevertheless, in the country, government media has broadcast completion events of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The director of human resources department of the military, General Hachalu, recently said in an interview that the defense forces was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Past Origins of the Tension

For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was governed by Italian rulers.

After Italy's defeat, it was then administered by the UK forces before turning into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

However in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this arrangement and Eritrea became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year armed struggle followed, finishing with the government's loss in 1991. Sovereignty was then confirmed by Eritreans in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the exact location of their mutual frontier, causing conflict in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries remained at odds.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders agreed to a announcement that the hostilities was finished – a move that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The both administrations were then cooperators in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 civil war in Tigray.

Yet diplomatic connections have later worsened once more.