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Mounting worries are present about the chance of warfare involving East African countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive discourse has escalated in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrea has sparked a intense verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in the previous year that his government's access to the sea was an vital issue, comments that Eritrea rejected.

Relations between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. After a decades-long fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, making it landlocked.

Subsequently, a military clash broke out in which over a hundred thousand people lost their lives.

Current Comments from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed ownership of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and implied the wish to take it by force.

Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "rectified in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Claims

Despite persistent warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been confined to brief comments on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

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

Eritrean authorities alerted on 16 September that moves to validate "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Region

So far, there are little evidence of major military movements in the border areas between the neighboring states.

However, in Ethiopia, state television has shown training completions of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The leader of staff section of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our enemies".

Previous Background of the Conflict

For decades from 1890, the territory was ruled by colonial powers.

Following World War II, it was then controlled by the UK forces before becoming a associated territory of Ethiopia.

Yet in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor ended this arrangement and the region became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

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

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, leading to war in 1998.

Although this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries remained at in dispute.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two agreed to a declaration that the conflict was over – a move that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The both administrations were then cooperators in the country's 2020-2022 internal conflict in Tigray.

Yet diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated once more.