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Mounting concerns have emerged about the chance of warfare among East African countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile language has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Has Ethiopia Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for access to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has triggered a intense rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in last year that his nation's maritime access was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Relations between the two countries have frequently been strained. After a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a military clash broke out in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Current Remarks from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrean coastal city of Assab – about 60km from the border - and implied the intention to take it by force.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said the country's "error" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "rectified tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "using武力".

Eritrean Response to the Claims

Despite ongoing challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to brief comments on online platforms from Communications Head the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopian requests for maritime entry describing it as "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a approach of retaking lost territory.

Eritrean authorities alerted on 16 September that efforts to validate "blatant hostility" 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 Region

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

Nonetheless, in the country, state television has broadcast graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The head of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, commented lately in an conversation that the army was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Previous Background of the Tension

For over fifty years from 1890, the territory was administered by Italian rulers.

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

However in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this system and Eritrea became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long armed struggle followed, finishing with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then approved by the population in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the exact location of their common border, leading to war in 1998.

Even though this ended in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors remained at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a announcement that the war was concluded – a decision that earned the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The both administrations were then partners in the country's 2020-2022 armed struggle in the northern region.

Yet ties have later worsened anew.