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Increasing apprehensions are present regarding the chance of warfare involving Horn of Africa neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as hostile discourse has escalated in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has sparked a heated war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in last year that his government's sea access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrea ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. Following a decades-long battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a long sea border, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in 1993, making it without sea access.

Five years later, a territorial conflict started in which over a hundred thousand people lost their lives.

Recent Remarks from Ethiopia's Officials

Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrean maritime facility of the port of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and implied the desire to take it by force.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "mistake" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be returned "by force".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Threats

In the face of persistent threats from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to brief comments on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for maritime entry labeling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a approach of claiming back former lands.

Government spokespeople cautioned on mid-September that attempts to validate "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Border

So far, there are no reports of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has broadcast training completions of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The leader of staff section of the military, the officer, stated recently in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of young people" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Previous Origins of the Dispute

For decades from 1890, the territory was administered by colonial powers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British military before becoming a associated territory of Ethiopia.

However in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this system and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war occurred, concluding with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then approved by voters in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they clashed over the exact location of their common border, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations continued at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a declaration that the conflict was over – a move that earned the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in Ethiopia's previous civil war in Tigray.

Yet ties have later worsened again.