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Increasing apprehensions are present over the possibility of warfare involving East African countries, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as confrontational language has intensified in the last month.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a intense verbal exchange.

The Ethiopian leader initially stated publicly in the previous year that his nation's maritime access was an vital issue, comments that Eritrea rejected.

Diplomatic connections between the neighboring nations have often been tense. After a prolonged struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in 1993, leaving it landlocked.

Five years later, a military clash broke out in which over a hundred thousand people lost their lives.

Latest Statements from Ethiopian Government

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrean southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the frontier - and suggested the wish to take it by force.

In early September, the Prime Minister said the country's "mistake" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "addressed soon".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "belonging to Ethiopia" and would be returned "by force".

Eritrean Reaction to the Claims

Amid persistent challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been restricted to brief comments on online platforms from Communications Head the minister.

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's push for access to the Red Sea describing it as "dangerous" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a approach of claiming back lost territory.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on recently that efforts to justify "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "boundary that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Region

So far, there are little evidence of large-scale army activities in the border areas between the two countries.

However, in Ethiopia, government media has displayed training completions of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The head of personnel division of the military, General Hachalu, recently said in an discussion that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "tens of thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a message to our opponents".

Previous Roots of the Tension

For over fifty years from 1890, Eritrea was governed by colonial powers.

After World War II, it was then controlled by the UK forces before evolving into a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this system and the region became totally absorbed into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war followed, finishing with the government's loss in 1991. Sovereignty was then endorsed 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 disagreed over the exact location of their common border, causing hostilities in 1998.

Even though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the neighbors remained at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders agreed to a statement that the hostilities was concluded – a move that earned the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The two governments were then allies in Ethiopia's previous civil war in the northern region.

However ties have later worsened once more.