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Growing concerns have emerged over the possibility of warfare among East African neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational rhetoric has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has provoked a fierce verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in last year that his government's sea access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrea rejected.

Relations between the both governments have frequently been strained. Following a prolonged battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a long sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a border war broke out in which numerous people lost their lives.

Current Remarks from Ethiopian Leadership

Abiy and army chief the army commander have directly stated ownership of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the wish to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "rectified soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "using武力".

Eritrea's Answer to the Claims

Despite continuous threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to brief comments on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea calling it "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "expansionism" – a policy of claiming back former lands.

Government spokespeople alerted on 16 September that attempts to validate "blatant hostility" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Region

Currently, there are little evidence of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, government media has displayed training completions of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The director of human resources department of the armed forces, the officer, commented lately in an interview that the army was in a "strong stance" as "many thousands of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Past Roots of the Tension

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, the territory was administered by colonial powers.

After World War II, it was then managed by the British administration before evolving into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

However in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor terminated this system and Eritrea became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year civil war followed, concluding with military reversal in 1991. Autonomy was then approved by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their shared boundary, leading to hostilities in 1998.

Though this concluded in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries continued at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a announcement that the conflict was concluded – a decision that gained the Prime Minister the international recognition.

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

Yet relations have since broken down once more.