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Increasing worries are present about the potential of warfare among Horn of Africa neighbors, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as confrontational language has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrea has sparked a fierce war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in the previous year that his country's sea access was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrea dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a long sea border, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it cut off from the sea.

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

Latest Comments from Ethiopia's Government

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed ownership of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the border - and suggested the desire to seize it militarily.

In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea secession would be "addressed soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Threats

Amid ongoing challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to short statements on X from Information Minister the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea describing it as "dangerous" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a policy of claiming back former lands.

The information ministry warned on 16 September that attempts to justify "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Preparations on the Ground

Currently, there are no reports of major military movements in the boundary zones between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, state television has displayed graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The head of human resources department of the military, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an conversation that the military was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our adversaries".

Historical Roots of the Tension

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

After the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the British military before turning into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this agreement and the region became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A extended internal conflict occurred, ending with military reversal in the early 1990s. Independence was then endorsed by voters in a vote in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their common border, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

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

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a declaration that the conflict was over – a action that won Abiy the prestigious award.

The two governments were then partners in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 armed struggle in Tigray.

But ties have later worsened again.