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Increasing apprehensions are present regarding the potential of warfare among Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile rhetoric has escalated in the last month.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for entry to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has triggered a heated war of words.

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in last year that his nation's maritime access was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Relations between the both governments have frequently been strained. Following a long-standing fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it without sea access.

Five years later, a territorial conflict started in which numerous people were killed.

Current Remarks from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and suggested the intention to seize it militarily.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of losing access to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea secession would be "rectified in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrean Reaction to the Threats

Despite persistent warnings from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been limited to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry calling it "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a strategy of claiming back lost territory.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on recently that moves to justify "blatant hostility" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Activities on the Region

Currently, there are few indications of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in the country, state television has displayed completion events of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The head of personnel division of the defense force, the officer, commented lately in an conversation that the military was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of youths" were entering service, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Previous Origins of the Conflict

For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was administered by colonial powers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the British administration before evolving into a associated territory of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the ruler ended this agreement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year armed struggle ensued, finishing with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then approved by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they clashed over the exact location of their shared boundary, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Even though this concluded in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors continued at in dispute.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders signed a statement that the hostilities was finished – a move that earned Abiy the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then partners in the country's previous civil war in the northern region.

Yet ties have later worsened anew.