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Mounting worries have emerged regarding the chance of warfare among East African neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational rhetoric has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has sparked a fierce war of words.

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

Relations between the both governments have regularly been difficult. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it without sea access.

In 1998, a military clash erupted in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Leadership

Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrean maritime facility of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and suggested the desire to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "addressed tomorrow".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "using武力".

Eritrean Answer to the Threats

Amid persistent warnings from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been limited to concise remarks on X from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for maritime entry calling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of reclaiming lost territory.

Eritrean authorities warned on 16 September that attempts to validate "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Border

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

Nonetheless, in the country, national TV has displayed graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The director of human resources department of the defense force, General Hachalu, stated recently in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Previous Roots of the Tension

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, the territory was governed by colonial powers.

Following World War II, it was then controlled by the British military before evolving into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

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

A thirty-year civil war followed, concluding with military reversal in 1991. Independence was then confirmed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Even though this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries continued at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President the president. The two signed a declaration that the war was concluded – a action that earned Abiy the international recognition.

The both administrations were then partners in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 armed struggle in Tigray.

However diplomatic connections have since broken down again.