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Growing concerns exist over the chance of warfare involving East African countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile discourse has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Landlocked Ethiopia's calls for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has provoked a intense verbal exchange.

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in 2023 that his nation's maritime access was an existential matter, comments that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Relations between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. After a prolonged struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a long maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, making it without sea access.

In 1998, a military clash erupted in which more than 100,000 people lost their lives.

Recent Remarks from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have directly stated ownership of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – about 60km from the frontier - and implied the intention to seize it militarily.

On 1 September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing access to the sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "corrected tomorrow".

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

Eritrean Reaction to the Statements

In the face of persistent threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for sea access describing it as "risky" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a strategy of retaking previous domains.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on mid-September that moves to validate "flagrant aggression" would have significant repercussions for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Activities on the Ground

Currently, there are little evidence of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the neighboring states.

However, in the country, government media has displayed completion events of many recruits at different defense facilities.

The leader of personnel division of the armed forces, General Hachalu, stated recently in an discussion that the army was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Past Roots of the Dispute

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

After Italy's defeat, it was then managed by the UK forces before becoming a federated part of Ethiopia.

Yet in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this arrangement and Eritrea became totally absorbed into Ethiopia.

A three-decade long armed struggle followed, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then endorsed by the population in a referendum in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were friendly connections between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their shared boundary, causing war in 1998.

Though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations stayed at in dispute.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The two agreed to a statement that the hostilities was concluded – a decision that gained the Prime Minister the prestigious award.

The both administrations were then partners in Ethiopia's 2020-2022 civil war in Tigray.

However ties have since broken down once more.