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Increasing worries exist over the possibility of warfare involving East African countries, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as confrontational discourse has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for entry to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has sparked a fierce war of words.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in the previous year that his country's access to the sea was an vital issue, comments that Eritrea ignored.

Ties between the both governments have often been tense. Following a prolonged struggle for freedom, Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it cut off from the sea.

Subsequently, a border war erupted in which numerous people were killed.

Recent Comments from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted control of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the frontier - and hinted at the wish to capture it through military means.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of being denied passage to the sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "rectified tomorrow".

Ethiopia's ambassador to neighboring Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "by force".

Eritrean Response to the Threats

Amid ongoing threats from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's response has been confined to short statements on online platforms from Information Minister the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea describing it as "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a policy of retaking lost territory.

Eritrean authorities warned on 16 September that attempts to validate "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Ground

So far, there are no reports of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in the country, national TV has shown completion events of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The director of personnel division of the military, General Hachalu, stated recently in an interview that the military was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Past Background of the Tension

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

After Italy's defeat, it was then controlled by the British military before evolving into a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I ended this arrangement and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long armed struggle followed, ending with military reversal in 1991. Independence was then endorsed by voters in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, leading to conflict in 1998.

Although this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors continued at odds.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The two signed a declaration that the hostilities was finished – a action that won the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then allies in the country's recent armed struggle in the northern region.

However ties have later worsened anew.