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Increasing apprehensions have emerged regarding the possibility of warfare between East African countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile language has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for access to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a heated rhetorical conflict.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in last year that his nation's access to the sea was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrea dismissed.

Diplomatic connections between the both governments have often been tense. Following a decades-long struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

Five years later, a military clash erupted in which over a hundred thousand people died.

Current Comments from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's maritime facility of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and implied the wish to capture it through military means.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "error" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "addressed soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrean Response to the Statements

Amid continuous challenges from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been limited to short statements on social media from Communications Head Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea calling it "hazardous" and a "harmful plan" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of reclaiming previous domains.

The information ministry alerted on 16 September that efforts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Ground

So far, there are little evidence of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the two countries.

Nonetheless, in the country, government media has displayed completion events of numerous trainees at multiple army bases.

The leader of staff section of the defense force, General Hachalu, recently said in an discussion that the army was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our enemies".

Previous Background of the Conflict

For decades from 1890, the territory was ruled by Italian colonisers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the UK forces before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

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

A extended armed struggle occurred, concluding with military reversal in 1991. Sovereignty was then endorsed by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the governments in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their common border, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Though this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries remained at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrean President the president. The both leaders signed a statement that the hostilities was concluded – a move that gained Abiy the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then cooperators in the country's recent internal conflict in the northern region.

But ties have since broken down anew.