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Increasing concerns have emerged about the potential of warfare among East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as hostile rhetoric has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopia Said?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for entry to the sea coast through Eritrea has provoked a intense rhetorical conflict.

The Ethiopian leader initially stated publicly in 2023 that his nation's sea access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrea rejected.

Relations between the two countries have frequently been strained. Following a long-standing struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive sea border, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, making it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a border war erupted in which numerous people were killed.

Current Comments from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have openly claimed control of Eritrea's maritime facility of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and suggested the intention to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "error" of losing access to the sea as a because of Eritrea secession would be "rectified soon".

Ethiopia's ambassador to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be given back "through military action".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Statements

In the face of continuous threats from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister Yemane G..

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for sea access calling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a approach of claiming back former lands.

Government spokespeople warned on mid-September that moves to validate "obvious provocation" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Region

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

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

The director of human resources department of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an conversation that the army was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Past Roots of the Tension

For more than half a century from the late 19th century, the territory was administered by Italian colonisers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then controlled by the British military before turning into a federated part of Ethiopia.

However in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this system and the region became fully incorporated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war followed, concluding with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then approved by Eritreans in a referendum in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, causing conflict in 1998.

Although this ended in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the both countries continued at in dispute.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders signed a statement that the hostilities was finished – a decision that won Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The both administrations were then allies in the country's 2020-2022 internal conflict in the northern region.

Yet ties have subsequently deteriorated anew.