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Mounting apprehensions have emerged about the possibility of warfare involving East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as hostile rhetoric has escalated in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for passage to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has provoked a fierce war of words.

Ethiopian Prime Minister first openly declared in last year that his government's maritime access was an existential matter, remarks that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Ties between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. After a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a military clash started in which more than 100,000 people were killed.

Current Statements from Ethiopia's Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief the army commander have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrean southern port of Assab – some 60 km from the boundary - and hinted at the intention to seize it militarily.

In early September, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "corrected soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrea's Reaction to the Threats

In the face of continuous threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to short statements on social media from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for maritime entry calling it "dangerous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a strategy of reclaiming lost territory.

Eritrean authorities warned on 16 September that moves to justify "blatant hostility" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its regional partners and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Ground

There have been no reports of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the neighboring states.

However, in Ethiopia, national TV has broadcast completion events of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The head of personnel division of the defense force, the officer, recently said in an discussion that the army was in a "secure situation" as "tens of thousands of young people" were joining it, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Past Background of the Tension

For more than half a century from 1890, the territory was ruled by colonial powers.

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British administration before becoming a federated part of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this system and Eritrea became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict occurred, finishing with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Autonomy was then endorsed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their common border, leading to conflict in 1998.

Even though this ended in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors remained at in dispute.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made overtures to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders agreed to a statement that the hostilities was over – a action that won the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighboring states were then partners in the country's previous civil war in Tigray.

But diplomatic connections have since broken down again.