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Growing concerns have emerged about the possibility of warfare between Horn of Africa countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as aggressive language has intensified in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has triggered a intense war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in the previous year that his government's maritime access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrea ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the both governments have frequently been strained. After a prolonged struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long sea border, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in 1993, rendering it landlocked.

In 1998, a border war broke out in which numerous people lost their lives.

Latest Remarks from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have directly stated sovereignty of Eritrea's coastal city of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and implied the wish to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of losing access to the sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "corrected tomorrow".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be returned "by force".

Eritrean Answer to the Statements

Despite continuous threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been limited to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for sea access describing it as "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of claiming back lost territory.

Eritrean authorities alerted on recently that attempts to justify "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Activities on the Ground

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

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, government media has shown completion events of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The leader of personnel division of the defense force, the officer, recently said in an interview that the army was in a "secure situation" as "many thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Previous Origins of the Dispute

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

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

However in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this system and the region became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long armed struggle followed, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then confirmed by Eritreans in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, leading to war in 1998.

Even though this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors stayed at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrean President President Isaias. The two signed a declaration that the hostilities was over – a decision that earned Abiy the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in the country's previous civil war in the northern region.

But relations have since broken down again.