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Growing worries are present regarding the chance of warfare between East African countries, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as aggressive rhetoric has escalated in the last month.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for access to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has provoked a heated war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister initially stated publicly in last year that his government's maritime access was an crucial concern, comments that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Ties between the both governments have frequently been strained. Following a long-standing struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it landlocked.

In 1998, a territorial conflict started in which over a hundred thousand people lost their lives.

Recent Remarks from Ethiopian Leadership

Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and hinted at the wish to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said the country's "blunder" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "corrected soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "through military action".

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

Amid continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to brief comments on social media from Communications Head Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea labeling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a approach of claiming back former lands.

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

Military Movements on the Ground

There have been little evidence of major military movements in the boundary zones between the two countries.

However, in the country, state television has displayed graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The leader of human resources department of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an interview that the military was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Past Background of the Tension

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, Eritrea was administered by Italian colonisers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the UK forces before becoming a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

However in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor terminated this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year civil war occurred, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then endorsed by the population in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, resulting in war in 1998.

Though this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries continued at odds.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrean President the president. The two endorsed a declaration that the war was over – a action that earned Abiy the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then partners in Ethiopia's previous armed struggle in the northern region.

But ties have subsequently deteriorated anew.