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Mounting worries are present regarding the possibility of warfare involving Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as hostile rhetoric has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for entry to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has provoked a heated war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in the previous year that his country's sea access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrea rejected.

Ties between the both governments have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, legally broke away from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a military clash broke out in which over a hundred thousand people lost their lives.

Recent Remarks from Ethiopia's Leadership

Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and suggested the desire to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of losing access to the sea as a due to Eritrean independence 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 returned "using武力".

Eritrean Answer to the Statements

In the face of ongoing threats from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been limited to concise remarks on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for maritime entry labeling it "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "expansionism" – a strategy of retaking former lands.

The information ministry warned on recently that moves to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Region

There have been little evidence of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, government media has displayed training completions of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The head of human resources department of the defense force, General Hachalu, stated recently in an interview that the military was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of youths" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Historical Roots of the Conflict

For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was governed by Italian colonisers.

After Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the British administration before evolving into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in 1962 the ruler cancelled this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year civil war occurred, concluding with military reversal in 1991. Sovereignty was then confirmed by voters in a vote in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Even though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the two nations remained at odds.

This ended in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders signed a declaration that the hostilities was concluded – a move that gained Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The both administrations were then allies in the country's recent civil war in the northern region.

But ties have since broken down again.