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Growing worries have emerged over the chance of warfare among East African countries, Ethiopia and Eritrea, as aggressive discourse has intensified in recent weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, requests for passage to the Red Sea through Eritrean territory has provoked a fierce war of words.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in the previous year that his government's access to the sea was an vital issue, remarks that Eritrean authorities dismissed.

Ties between the two countries have regularly been difficult. After a long-standing fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a extensive maritime frontage, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

In 1998, a territorial conflict broke out in which over a hundred thousand people were killed.

Latest Statements from Ethiopia's Government

Abiy and army chief the army commander have publicly asserted ownership of Eritrea's southern port of the port of Assab – approximately 60 kilometers from the boundary - and implied the desire to take it by force.

Recently, Abiy said Ethiopia's "blunder" of being denied passage to the Red Sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "rectified soon".

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

Eritrean Reaction to the Claims

In the face of persistent challenges from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been limited to concise remarks on social media from Information Minister the minister.

He has rejected Ethiopian requests for access to the Red Sea calling it "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "expansionism" – a strategy of retaking former lands.

The information ministry warned on 16 September that efforts to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for the Ethiopian government and its neighbouring countries and is a "redline that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Preparations on the Ground

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

Nevertheless, in the country, national TV has shown training completions of thousands of cadets at different defense facilities.

The director of human resources department of the defense force, the officer, stated recently in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "strong stance" as "numerous of youths" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our opponents".

Previous Origins of the Dispute

For over fifty years from the late 19th century, Eritrea was ruled by colonial powers.

After World War II, it was then administered by the UK forces before turning into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

However in 1962 the Ethiopian emperor cancelled this agreement and Eritrea became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A extended civil war followed, ending with military reversal in 1991. Sovereignty was then endorsed by the population in a plebiscite in 1993.

Temporarily in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Addis Ababa and Eritrea's capital, but they clashed over the specific demarcation of their mutual frontier, causing conflict in 1998.

Though this finished in a truce in 2000, it was partially applied, and the both countries stayed at loggerheads.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrea's leader the president. The two agreed to a declaration that the hostilities was over – a move that gained Abiy the prestigious award.

The two governments were then cooperators in Ethiopia's recent armed struggle in the northern region.

Yet diplomatic connections have later worsened anew.