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Mounting apprehensions exist regarding the possibility of warfare involving Horn of Africa neighbours, the Ethiopian government and Eritrea, as hostile rhetoric has ratcheted up in recent weeks.

What Has Ethiopian Officials Declared?

Ethiopia's, being landlocked, calls for passage to the sea coast through Eritrea has triggered a intense verbal exchange.

The Ethiopian leader first openly declared in the previous year that his country's access to the sea was an vital issue, comments that Eritrean authorities ignored.

Ties between the neighboring nations have frequently been strained. Following a decades-long battle for independence, the Eritrean state, which has a extensive Red Sea coastline, formally separated from Ethiopian rule in the early 1990s, rendering it without sea access.

Subsequently, a border war started in which numerous people died.

Recent Statements from Ethiopia's Leadership

Prime Minister Abiy and army chief Field Marshal Birhanu Jula have openly claimed control of Eritrean maritime facility of the port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and hinted at the wish to seize it militarily.

In early September, Abiy said the country's "mistake" of losing entry to the sea as a result of Eritrea secession would be "corrected in the future".

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, ex-military officer Bacha, said that Assab was "Ethiopian property" and would be returned "through military action".

Eritrean Answer to the Claims

Despite persistent threats from Ethiopia, Asmara's position has been restricted to concise remarks on X from Information Minister the minister.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's demand for maritime entry calling it "risky" and a "harmful plan" of "expansionism" – a policy of reclaiming lost territory.

The information ministry warned on recently that moves to legitimise "obvious provocation" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its neighbors and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Defense Activities on the Border

There have been no reports of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in the country, state television has broadcast graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at multiple army bases.

The director of personnel division of the defense force, Lt Gen Hachalu Sheleme, recently said in an conversation that the defense forces was in a "secure situation" as "numerous of youths" were entering service, which he said was "a signal to our opponents".

Past Roots of the Dispute

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

After Italy's defeat, it was then administered by the UK forces before becoming a integrated region of the Ethiopian empire.

However in the early 1960s the ruler ended this arrangement and the region became fully incorporated into Ethiopia.

A thirty-year internal conflict followed, finishing with military reversal in the early 1990s. Sovereignty was then approved by voters in a plebiscite in 1993.

Briefly in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the governments in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they fell out over the precise positioning of their mutual frontier, leading to hostilities in 1998.

Although this concluded in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was incompletely executed, and the neighbors stayed at odds.

This changed in 2018, when the Prime Minister made overtures to Eritrea's leader President Isaias. The both leaders endorsed a announcement that the conflict was over – a action that won Abiy the prestigious award.

The neighboring states were then allies in Ethiopia's recent armed struggle in the northern region.

But diplomatic connections have subsequently deteriorated once more.