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Growing apprehensions are present regarding the chance of warfare among Horn of Africa neighbors, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational discourse has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has sparked a fierce rhetorical conflict.

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in 2023 that his country's maritime access was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrea rejected.

Ties between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. After a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a border war broke out in which more than 100,000 people lost their lives.

Current Statements from Ethiopian Officials

Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and hinted at the desire to seize it militarily.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Threats

In the face of ongoing challenges from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been confined to concise remarks on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for maritime entry calling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a policy of retaking lost territory.

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

Security Preparations on the Region

So far, there are little evidence of major military movements in the frontier regions between the both nations.

However, in the country, government media has displayed graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at multiple army bases.

The leader of personnel division of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Previous Roots of the Dispute

For decades from 1890, the territory was governed by colonial powers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then administered by the British military before becoming a federated part of Ethiopia.

However in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this agreement and the region became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict occurred, concluding with military reversal in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then endorsed by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their common border, leading to hostilities in 1998.

Even though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations continued at in dispute.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders agreed to a declaration that the hostilities was finished – a action that gained the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The both administrations were then partners in the country's previous armed struggle in the northern region.

Yet diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated again.