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Mounting worries have emerged regarding the possibility of warfare involving Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational language has intensified in the last month.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

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

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in last year that his nation's maritime access was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Relations between the both governments have regularly been difficult. After a long-standing struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in 1993, making it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a border war erupted in which numerous people were killed.

Current Remarks from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrean maritime facility of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and hinted at the desire to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing access to the sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "rectified soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrean Answer to the Claims

In the face of persistent challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been restricted to short statements on social media from Communications Head the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for maritime entry describing it as "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a strategy of retaking former lands.

The information ministry alerted on mid-September that attempts to justify "blatant hostility" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Movements on the Region

So far, there are little evidence of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has broadcast training completions of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The director of human resources department of the defense force, the officer, recently said in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "many thousands of young people" were entering service, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Historical Origins of the Conflict

For decades from the late 19th century, the territory was administered by colonial powers.

After Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the UK forces before turning into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

However in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor terminated this agreement and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long civil war occurred, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then endorsed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, resulting in war in 1998.

Even though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the two nations stayed at odds.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders endorsed a announcement that the war was over – a decision that won Abiy the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then allies in the country's previous civil war in Tigray.

Yet ties have later worsened once more.