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Mounting apprehensions exist over the possibility of warfare between Horn of Africa neighbors, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational discourse has intensified in the last month.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a fierce verbal exchange.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in the previous year that his country's maritime access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities rejected.

Diplomatic connections between the both governments have often been tense. After a long-standing fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it landlocked.

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

Latest Comments from Ethiopia's Officials

Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrean coastal city of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and implied the desire to seize it militarily.

Recently, the Prime Minister said the country's "mistake" of being denied passage to the sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "addressed in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrea's Answer to the Statements

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

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry describing it as "risky" and a "negative policy" of "expansionism" – a strategy of claiming back former lands.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on 16 September that attempts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Activities on the Ground

There have been few indications of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, state television has shown training completions of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The leader of personnel division of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Past Background of the Dispute

For over fifty years from 1890, Eritrea was administered by Italian colonisers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then administered by the British administration before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

Yet in 1962 the ruler terminated this system and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A extended internal conflict ensued, ending with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then confirmed by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, leading to war in 1998.

Even though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors stayed at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrean President the president. The two endorsed a declaration that the war was finished – a decision that gained Abiy the international recognition.

The both administrations were then partners in the country's 2020-2022 internal conflict in Tigray.

However relations have subsequently deteriorated once more.