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Increasing apprehensions exist over the possibility of warfare among East African neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational language has intensified in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for access to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a intense war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in 2023 that his government's access to the sea was an existential matter, statements that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. After a decades-long fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a long maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

In 1998, a border war broke out in which numerous people were killed.

Current Remarks from Ethiopian Leadership

Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted control of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and suggested the intention to seize it militarily.

In early September, the Prime Minister said the country's "blunder" of being denied passage to the sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "corrected soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Claims

Amid continuous warnings from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been confined to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopian requests for sea access labeling it "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a policy of retaking former lands.

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

Military Preparations on the Ground

There have been little evidence of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the neighboring states.

Nevertheless, in the country, national TV has displayed graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The director of human resources department of the military, the officer, stated recently in an interview that the army was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Previous Origins of the Dispute

For decades from the late 19th century, the territory was ruled by Italian colonisers.

After World War II, it was then managed by the British military before evolving into a associated territory of the Ethiopian empire.

However in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this agreement and Eritrea became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war ensued, concluding with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Independence was then approved by voters in a referendum in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their common border, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors continued at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader the president. The two agreed to a announcement that the hostilities was over – a action that earned Abiy the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then allies in the country's previous armed struggle in the northern region.

But relations have subsequently deteriorated once more.