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Increasing worries are present over the potential of warfare involving Horn of Africa neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as aggressive rhetoric has escalated in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

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

The Ethiopian leader initially stated publicly in 2023 that his nation's access to the sea was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrea rejected.

Diplomatic connections between the both governments have frequently been strained. After a prolonged fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

Five years later, a military clash started in which more than 100,000 people lost their lives.

Recent Remarks from Ethiopia's Officials

Abiy and army chief the army commander have publicly asserted control of Eritrean southern port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and suggested the wish to take it by force.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing access to the sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "corrected in the future".

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

Eritrean Response to the Threats

Despite ongoing warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been restricted to short statements on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea calling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a approach of reclaiming previous domains.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on recently that efforts to validate "obvious provocation" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Ground

Currently, there are little evidence of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in the country, government media has shown training completions of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The leader of personnel division of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an discussion that the military was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Previous Roots of the Conflict

For decades from the late 19th century, the territory was governed by Italian colonisers.

Following World War II, it was then controlled by the UK forces before evolving into a federated part of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this system and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war followed, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Independence was then confirmed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the exact location of their shared boundary, leading to conflict in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries remained at in dispute.

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

The two governments were then cooperators in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 civil war in Tigray.

Yet diplomatic connections have since broken down again.