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Increasing concerns are present regarding the chance of warfare involving Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as hostile rhetoric has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a intense verbal exchange.

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in last year that his government's sea access was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrea dismissed.

Relations between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a extensive maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, making it without sea access.

In 1998, a territorial conflict started in which over a hundred thousand people were killed.

Current Comments from Ethiopia's Leadership

Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and suggested the intention to take it by force.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "rectified in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrea's Answer to the Claims

Amid continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to concise remarks on X from Communications Head the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for sea access calling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a approach of reclaiming lost territory.

Government spokespeople warned on recently that moves to legitimise "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Border

Currently, there are no reports of major military movements in the boundary zones between the both nations.

However, in Ethiopia, government media has shown graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The director of staff section of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an discussion that the army was in a "strong stance" as "many thousands of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Previous Background of the Conflict

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

After the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British military before becoming a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this agreement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year civil war ensued, concluding with military reversal in the early 1990s. Independence was then endorsed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, causing conflict in 1998.

Although this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the two nations continued at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President President Isaias. The two endorsed a statement that the war was over – a decision that gained the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then partners in Ethiopia's previous internal conflict in Tigray.

But ties have later worsened again.