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Growing concerns exist about the possibility of warfare among Horn of Africa neighbors, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as hostile rhetoric has intensified in the past few weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Stated?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, demands for access to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has sparked a intense rhetorical conflict.

PM Abiy Ahmed first openly declared in last year that his government's sea access was an crucial concern, remarks that Eritrea dismissed.

Relations between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. After a decades-long fight for sovereignty, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) maritime frontage, officially seceded from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, leaving it landlocked.

Five years later, a territorial conflict broke out in which numerous people died.

Latest Comments from Ethiopian Government

Abiy and army chief the army commander have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's maritime facility of Assab – about 60km from the border - and suggested the wish to seize it militarily.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "blunder" of losing entry to the sea as a because of Eritrean independence would be "rectified in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to Kenya, former General Bacha Debele, said that the port was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "using武力".

Eritrea's Response to the Claims

Amid continuous threats from Ethiopia, Eritrea's reaction has been confined to concise remarks on X from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

He has rejected Ethiopia's demand for sea access labeling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "irredentism" – a policy of reclaiming lost territory.

Government spokespeople alerted on mid-September that moves to validate "obvious provocation" would have major implications for the Ethiopian government and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Security Preparations on the Ground

There have been few indications of major military movements in the boundary zones between the both nations.

Nonetheless, in Ethiopia, national TV has displayed training completions of numerous trainees at multiple army bases.

The director of human resources department of the military, the officer, commented lately in an interview that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of recruits" were joining it, which he said was "a warning to our enemies".

Past Origins of the Tension

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

After World War II, it was then controlled by the UK forces before becoming a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s the ruler ended this agreement and the region became completely integrated into Ethiopia.

A extended internal conflict followed, concluding with the government's loss in the early 1990s. Autonomy was then approved by voters 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 disagreed over the precise positioning of their common border, leading to conflict in 1998.

Although this finished in a peace deal in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the two nations continued at odds.

This situation improved in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader the president. The both leaders agreed to a declaration that the conflict was finished – a decision that won the Prime Minister the international recognition.

The neighboring states were then allies in the country's recent civil war in Tigray.

However relations have later worsened anew.