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Growing concerns have emerged about the chance of warfare between Horn of Africa neighbors, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive rhetoric has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for access to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has triggered a intense war of words.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in last year that his government's maritime access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Ties between the neighboring nations have regularly been difficult. Following a decades-long fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it without sea access.

Subsequently, a border war started in which over a hundred thousand people lost their lives.

Latest Statements from Ethiopia's Officials

Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and implied the wish to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, the Prime Minister said the country's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "corrected tomorrow".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrean Answer to the Claims

Despite continuous challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been limited to brief comments on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea labeling it "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a approach of reclaiming lost territory.

Eritrean authorities warned on 16 September that attempts to justify "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Preparations on the Border

So far, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the both nations.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, government media has shown completion events of thousands of cadets at multiple army bases.

The leader of human resources department of the defense force, General Hachalu, stated recently in an conversation that the military was in a "reliable position" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Previous Background of the Tension

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

After Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the UK forces before becoming a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

However in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this agreement and Eritrea became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A extended civil war followed, ending with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then endorsed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily 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 common border, resulting in war in 1998.

Though this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations stayed at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President President Isaias. The two agreed to a announcement that the hostilities was finished – a action that earned the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The both administrations were then partners in the country's recent internal conflict in Tigray.

However ties have later worsened once more.