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Mounting apprehensions are present over the potential of warfare involving Horn of Africa neighbors, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as hostile discourse has escalated in the last month.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Declared?

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

PM Abiy Ahmed initially stated publicly in the previous year that his nation's sea access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrea dismissed.

Relations between the both governments have often been tense. After a decades-long fight for sovereignty, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, officially seceded from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

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

Latest Comments from Ethiopian Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrean southern port of Assab – about 60km from the boundary - and implied the wish to seize it militarily.

In early September, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrea's separation would be "addressed in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that the port was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be restored "using武力".

Eritrean Response to the Threats

In the face of continuous threats from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been confined to brief comments on X from Communications Head the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for sea access calling it "hazardous" and a "toxic agenda" of "irredentism" – a approach of reclaiming previous domains.

Government spokespeople alerted on 16 September that efforts to justify "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Border

So far, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the boundary zones between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in the country, state television has shown graduation ceremonies of many recruits at multiple army bases.

The director of personnel division of the armed forces, General Hachalu, recently said in an interview that the army was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of youths" were entering service, which he said was "a message to our enemies".

Previous Background of the Dispute

For decades from 1890, Eritrea was governed by Italian rulers.

Following World War II, it was then administered by the UK forces before turning into a federated part of Ethiopia.

But in 1962 Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this system and Eritrea became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year armed struggle occurred, ending with Ethiopia's defeat in 1991. Autonomy was then confirmed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the authorities in Ethiopia's capital and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the precise positioning of their common border, causing hostilities in 1998.

Though this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the both countries stayed at in dispute.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made approaches to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The both leaders endorsed a statement that the conflict was concluded – a decision that won the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The both administrations were then partners in the country's previous armed struggle in Tigray.

But relations have later worsened once more.