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Growing concerns exist about the potential of warfare between East African neighbours, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational rhetoric has escalated in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

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

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in the previous year that his government's sea access was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Ties between the both governments have frequently been strained. After a prolonged battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a long sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

Five years later, a military clash erupted in which over a hundred thousand people were killed.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrea's maritime facility of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and hinted at the intention to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrea's Answer to the Statements

Amid ongoing warnings from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been confined to short statements on X from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea describing it as "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a policy of retaking former lands.

Eritrean authorities warned on recently that moves to validate "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Region

There have been few indications of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in the country, government media has displayed graduation ceremonies of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The leader of personnel division of the defense force, the officer, stated recently in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our enemies".

Past Origins of the Conflict

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, the territory was governed by Italian rulers.

After Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the UK forces before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

Yet in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this arrangement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year civil war occurred, concluding with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Independence was then endorsed by Eritreans 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 fell out over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, resulting in war in 1998.

Although this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries stayed at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President President Isaias. The two agreed to a declaration that the hostilities was concluded – a decision that gained Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then cooperators in Ethiopia's previous armed struggle in the northern region.

However ties have since broken down again.