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Increasing worries have emerged about the potential of warfare involving East African neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as aggressive discourse has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a heated rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in last year that his government's maritime access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Ties between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. Following a long-standing fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it landlocked.

Subsequently, a border war erupted in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Officials

Abiy and military leader the army commander have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and implied the intention to seize it militarily.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrean independence would be "rectified tomorrow".

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

Eritrea's Reaction to the Claims

Amid ongoing threats from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been confined to short statements on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane G..

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

Eritrean authorities alerted on mid-September that efforts to validate "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Activities on the Ground

There have been no reports of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the two countries.

However, in Ethiopia, government media has displayed graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The head of staff section of the military, the officer, recently said in an interview that the military was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Previous Origins of the Conflict

For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was ruled by Italian colonisers.

After Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the British military before evolving into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

However in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor ended this system and the region became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A extended civil war occurred, ending with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then approved by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they fell out over the exact location of their shared boundary, causing war in 1998.

Although this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors stayed at odds.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a announcement that the conflict was concluded – a move that won Abiy the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then allies in Ethiopia's recent internal conflict in the northern region.

But ties have since broken down anew.