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Mounting concerns exist about the potential of warfare between Horn of Africa neighbors, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as aggressive rhetoric has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a intense rhetorical conflict.

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in the previous year that his government's maritime access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Relations between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a extensive maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it without sea access.

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

Latest Statements from Ethiopia's Government

Abiy and army chief the army commander have directly stated ownership of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and suggested the desire to seize it militarily.

In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrean independence would be "rectified tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Claims

Amid continuous challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to concise remarks on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea calling it "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a approach of retaking former lands.

Eritrean authorities alerted on mid-September that moves to justify "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Activities on the Region

There have been few indications of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in the country, government media has displayed completion events of many recruits at various military training camps.

The head of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, stated recently in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Previous Background of the Dispute

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

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

However in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this agreement and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict followed, ending with military reversal in 1991. Autonomy was then endorsed by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they fell out over the exact location of their common border, causing war in 1998.

Although this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries continued at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The two signed a announcement that the war was concluded – a decision that earned Abiy the international recognition.

The two governments were then partners in the country's previous internal conflict in the northern region.

But ties have since broken down once more.