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Increasing worries are present regarding the possibility of warfare involving East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as aggressive language has intensified in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrea has sparked a heated war of words.

The Ethiopian leader initially stated publicly in last year that his country's access to the sea was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Relations between the neighboring nations have often been tense. After a prolonged battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a long sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, making it landlocked.

Subsequently, a border war erupted in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and hinted at the desire to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "corrected tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrean Response to the Statements

In the face of ongoing warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to concise remarks on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for sea access labeling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a strategy of reclaiming lost territory.

Eritrean authorities warned on recently that attempts to validate "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Region

So far, there are little evidence of large-scale army activities in the boundary zones between the both nations.

However, in the country, government media has broadcast graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The leader of personnel division of the military, General Hachalu, commented lately in an interview that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "many thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Past Origins of the Dispute

For decades from 1890, Eritrea was ruled by colonial powers.

After Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the British military before becoming a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor terminated this arrangement and Eritrea became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long internal conflict ensued, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then confirmed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Although this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries stayed at odds.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrea's leader the president. The two agreed to a declaration that the hostilities was concluded – a action that earned Abiy the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then allies in Ethiopia's recent internal conflict in Tigray.

But ties have later worsened again.