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Growing concerns have emerged about the chance of warfare involving Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive rhetoric has ratcheted up in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for access to the Red Sea through Eritrea has provoked a intense war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in last year that his government's access to the sea was an crucial concern, statements that Eritrea rejected.

Ties between the both governments have regularly been difficult. Following a prolonged fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopia in 1993, making it cut off from the sea.

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

Recent Comments from Ethiopian Leadership

Abiy and army chief General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and suggested the intention to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "error" of being denied passage to the sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "addressed in the future".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrea's Response to the Threats

Amid ongoing challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to concise remarks on X from Information Minister Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for sea access calling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a policy of reclaiming previous domains.

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

Security Movements on the Ground

So far, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has shown training completions of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The leader of staff section of the armed forces, General Hachalu, stated recently in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our enemies".

Previous Origins of the Dispute

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, Eritrea was ruled by colonial powers.

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

However in 1962 the ruler ended this system and Eritrea became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A extended civil war occurred, ending with military reversal in 1991. Autonomy was then approved by Eritreans in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, causing hostilities in 1998.

Though this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries remained at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders signed a declaration that the hostilities was over – a action that gained the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then allies in the country's recent civil war in Tigray.

But diplomatic connections have since broken down anew.