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Mounting apprehensions exist about the chance of warfare among Horn of Africa neighbours, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as aggressive language has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has sparked a heated verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in the previous year that his government's sea access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrea dismissed.

Relations between the two countries have often been tense. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it landlocked.

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

Latest Remarks from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrea's coastal city of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and implied the intention to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "addressed tomorrow".

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

Eritrea's Response to the Statements

Amid persistent threats from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been restricted to short statements on X from Communications Head the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for sea access calling it "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a approach of claiming back former lands.

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

Military Movements on the Region

Currently, there are few indications of major military movements in the border areas between the two countries.

However, in the country, national TV has broadcast completion events of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The leader of human resources department of the military, General Hachalu, recently said in an discussion that the army was in a "strong stance" as "many thousands of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Previous Background of the Dispute

For over fifty years from 1890, the territory was ruled by Italian colonisers.

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

But in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor terminated this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict followed, finishing with military reversal in 1991. Autonomy was then approved by the population in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the exact location of their shared boundary, causing conflict in 1998.

Although this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations continued at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a statement that the hostilities was finished – a decision that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then cooperators in the country's previous civil war in the northern region.

But relations have subsequently deteriorated again.