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Mounting worries exist over the potential of warfare among Horn of Africa neighbours, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile language has ratcheted up in the last month.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a heated rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in 2023 that his government's maritime access was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrea rejected.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have often been tense. After a long-standing struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

Five years later, a military clash started in which over a hundred thousand people were killed.

Current Comments from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrea's maritime facility of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and hinted at the desire to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of losing entry to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "corrected in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrean Response to the Statements

In the face of persistent warnings from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to concise remarks on online platforms from Information Minister Yemane G..

He has rejected Ethiopia's push for maritime entry describing it as "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a approach of claiming back lost territory.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on mid-September that moves to validate "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Ground

There have been little evidence of major military movements in the boundary zones between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in the country, government media has broadcast graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The leader of human resources department of the armed forces, General Hachalu, stated recently in an interview that the military was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Past Roots of the Dispute

For over fifty years from 1890, Eritrea was administered by colonial powers.

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

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

A extended armed struggle occurred, finishing with the government's loss in 1991. Independence was then endorsed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they disagreed over the specific demarcation of their common border, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Although this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries remained at odds.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a statement that the conflict was over – a action that gained Abiy the prestigious award.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's previous civil war in Tigray.

But diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated again.