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Growing apprehensions are present over the chance of warfare among East African countries, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as aggressive rhetoric has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for passage to the sea coast through Eritrean territory has triggered a fierce rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed previously announced in the previous year that his country's maritime access was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrea dismissed.

Ties between the both governments have regularly been difficult. After a prolonged battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it without sea access.

Subsequently, a border war started in which numerous people lost their lives.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Officials

Abiy and military leader General Birhanu Jula have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrea's coastal city of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and suggested the wish to capture it through military means.

On 1 September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "addressed soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "by force".

Eritrean Response to the Threats

Amid persistent challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to concise remarks on social media from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry describing it as "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a approach of reclaiming previous domains.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on 16 September that efforts to justify "flagrant aggression" would have major implications for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Movements on the Region

Currently, there are little evidence of large-scale army activities in the frontier regions between the two countries.

However, in the country, national TV has displayed graduation ceremonies of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The director of personnel division of the military, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an interview that the army was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our adversaries".

Historical Origins of the Tension

For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was ruled by Italian rulers.

Following Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the British military before evolving into a federated part of Ethiopia.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this arrangement and the region became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year internal conflict followed, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Independence was then endorsed 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 clashed over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, resulting in hostilities in 1998.

Although this concluded in a peace deal in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries stayed at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made gestures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders endorsed a announcement that the conflict was over – a decision that won Abiy the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then partners in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 armed struggle in Tigray.

Yet diplomatic connections have since broken down anew.