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Growing concerns have emerged regarding the chance of warfare between East African countries, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as confrontational language has intensified in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Landlocked Ethiopia's requests for entry to the sea coast through Eritrea has triggered a intense rhetorical conflict.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in 2023 that his country's maritime access was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Relations between the two countries have regularly been difficult. After a long-standing struggle for freedom, the Eritrean state, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) Red Sea coastline, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in 1993, making it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a territorial conflict broke out in which numerous people were killed.

Recent Statements from Ethiopian Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and hinted at the desire to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing access to the Red Sea as a due to Eritrea's separation would be "corrected in the future".

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

Eritrean Reaction to the Claims

In the face of ongoing challenges from Ethiopian officials, Eritrea's reaction has been restricted to short statements on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane G..

The minister has dismissed Ethiopia's demand for access to the Red Sea calling it "risky" and a "negative policy" of "irredentism" – a strategy of claiming back former lands.

Eritrean authorities alerted on mid-September that efforts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Movements on the Region

So far, there are little evidence of major military movements in the border areas between the neighboring states.

However, in Ethiopia, state television has broadcast training completions of thousands of cadets at various military training camps.

The head of staff section of the armed forces, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, stated recently in an interview that the military was in a "reliable position" as "many thousands of young people" were enlisting, which he said was "a message to our adversaries".

Previous Origins of the Tension

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, the territory was administered by Italian rulers.

After the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the British military before becoming a federated part of the Ethiopian empire.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I cancelled this arrangement and the region became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A three-decade long civil war followed, concluding with the government's loss in 1991. Autonomy was then endorsed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were good relations between the authorities in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they fell out over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, causing war in 1998.

Though this ended in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations continued at loggerheads.

This changed in 2018, when Abiy made gestures to Eritrean President the president. The two endorsed a declaration that the war was finished – a move that gained Abiy the international recognition.

The both administrations were then partners in the country's 2020-2022 civil war in the northern region.

Yet diplomatic connections have later worsened again.