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Mounting worries exist regarding the potential of warfare among East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational rhetoric has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a intense rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in 2023 that his country's sea access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrea ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive sea border, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a territorial conflict broke out in which more than 100,000 people died.

Latest Comments from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrean maritime facility of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the wish to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "mistake" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be returned "by force".

Eritrean Answer to the Claims

In the face of persistent threats from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for maritime entry labeling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a strategy of reclaiming former lands.

Government spokespeople alerted on 16 September that efforts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Border

There have been no reports of major military movements in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in the country, national TV has shown training completions of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The director of staff section of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Historical Background of the Tension

For decades from the late 19th century, Eritrea was ruled by Italian rulers.

Following World War II, it was then controlled by the UK forces before evolving into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in 1962 the ruler cancelled this agreement and Eritrea became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A extended civil war followed, ending with military reversal in 1991. Sovereignty was then approved by voters in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the exact location of their common border, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries continued at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders signed a statement that the war was concluded – a action that gained the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The two governments were then allies in the country's recent armed struggle in Tigray.

However relations have since broken down again.