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Increasing apprehensions exist over the potential of warfare involving East African countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as confrontational discourse has escalated in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Stated?

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

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in 2023 that his country's maritime access was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Diplomatic connections between the two countries have regularly been difficult. Following a long-standing battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, legally broke away from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, rendering it landlocked.

In 1998, a military clash started in which numerous people lost their lives.

Recent Statements from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have directly stated control of Eritrea's maritime facility of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the border - and suggested the intention to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of being denied passage to the sea as a due to Eritrea secession would be "addressed soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrean Reaction to the Statements

Amid ongoing threats from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been restricted to short statements on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea calling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a strategy of claiming back lost territory.

The information ministry alerted on 16 September that moves to validate "blatant hostility" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Ground

Currently, there are no reports of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the two countries.

Nevertheless, in Ethiopia, state television has shown graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The leader of staff section of the military, the officer, recently said in an interview that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a signal to our enemies".

Previous Roots of the Dispute

For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was administered by Italian colonisers.

After World War II, it was then administered by the British administration before evolving into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

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

A thirty-year internal conflict occurred, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Sovereignty was then confirmed by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Asmara, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, causing war in 1998.

Though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries stayed at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders agreed to a declaration that the conflict was finished – a decision that won Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then cooperators in Ethiopia's recent armed struggle in Tigray.

However ties have subsequently deteriorated again.