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Mounting concerns are present over the possibility of warfare among Horn of Africa countries, Ethiopia and the Eritrean government, as aggressive rhetoric has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrea has sparked a intense rhetorical conflict.

Ethiopian Prime Minister previously announced in 2023 that his country's sea access was an vital issue, statements that Eritrea rejected.

Relations between the two countries have regularly been difficult. After a long-standing battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive maritime frontage, legally broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, rendering it landlocked.

Subsequently, a border war erupted in which over a hundred thousand people lost their lives.

Recent Statements from Ethiopian Officials

Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed sovereignty of Eritrean coastal city of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and implied the intention to capture it through military means.

Recently, the Prime Minister said Ethiopia's "error" of being denied passage to the sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be restored "through military action".

Eritrea's Answer to the Statements

In the face of persistent warnings from Ethiopia, Eritrea's response has been restricted to brief comments on social media from Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for sea access labeling it "risky" and a "toxic agenda" of "expansionism" – a policy of retaking previous domains.

Eritrean authorities cautioned on recently that attempts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its regional partners and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Movements on the Border

So far, there are no reports of significant troop deployments in the border areas between the both nations.

However, in the country, national TV has shown completion events of numerous trainees at various military training camps.

The leader of staff section of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, commented lately in an interview that the army was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of recruits" were entering service, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Past Origins of the Conflict

For more than half a century from 1890, Eritrea was governed by colonial powers.

After World War II, it was then managed by the British military before evolving into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

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

A thirty-year armed struggle occurred, ending with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then approved by voters in a vote in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were good relations between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the exact location of their common border, resulting in conflict in 1998.

Although this concluded in a truce in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors continued at loggerheads.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader Isaias Afwerki. The two signed a declaration that the war was finished – a decision that earned Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.

The two governments were then partners in the country's recent armed struggle in Tigray.

However ties have since broken down anew.