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Mounting worries are present about the possibility of warfare among Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive rhetoric has escalated in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for access to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has triggered a heated rhetorical conflict.

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in 2023 that his government's maritime access was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrea dismissed.

Relations between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long sea border, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it landlocked.

Subsequently, a territorial conflict broke out in which numerous people were killed.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrean maritime facility of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and suggested the wish to seize it militarily.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "error" of losing entry to the sea as a result of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "through military action".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Threats

In the face of ongoing warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for maritime entry calling it "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a approach of retaking former lands.

The information ministry cautioned on mid-September that attempts to validate "blatant hostility" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Ground

Currently, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the neighboring states.

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

The leader of human resources department of the defense force, the officer, recently said in an conversation that the military was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Previous Background of the Dispute

For decades from 1890, Eritrea was ruled by colonial powers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then administered by the British military before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the ruler terminated this arrangement and Eritrea became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A extended civil war followed, concluding with the government's loss in 1991. Sovereignty was then approved by Eritreans 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 disagreed over the exact location of their shared boundary, causing hostilities in 1998.

Although this ended in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries stayed at in dispute.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders endorsed a statement that the war was finished – a action that gained the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 armed struggle in Tigray.

But diplomatic connections have since broken down once more.