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Mounting worries exist over the potential of armed conflict between East African neighbours, the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government, as hostile rhetoric has escalated in the past few weeks.

What Did Ethiopia Said?

Landlocked Ethiopia's demands for entry to the maritime outlet through Eritrean territory has triggered a heated war of words.

The Ethiopian leader previously announced in the previous year that his government's maritime access was an existential matter, statements that Eritrea ignored.

Relations between the two countries have often been tense. Following a decades-long battle for independence, Eritrea, which has a 1,350km (840-mile) sea border, formally separated from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, leaving it cut off from the sea.

Subsequently, a border war started in which more than 100,000 people lost their lives.

Recent Comments from Ethiopia's Officials

Prime Minister Abiy and military leader the army commander have publicly asserted sovereignty of Eritrea's southern port of Assab – some 60 km from the border - and implied the wish to take it by force.

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

The Ethiopian envoy to neighboring Kenya, retired Gen Bacha Debele, said that Assab was "Ethiopia's wealth" and would be given back "using武力".

Eritrea's Answer to the Threats

Despite continuous warnings from Ethiopian officials, Asmara's position has been limited to concise remarks on online platforms from Communications Head Yemane Gebremeskel.

Officials have denied Ethiopia's push for sea access describing it as "hazardous" and a "negative policy" of "territorial claims" – a approach of retaking previous domains.

Government spokespeople alerted on recently that efforts to legitimise "flagrant aggression" would have serious consequences for Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries and is a "limit that should not be crossed|violated|breached".

Military Preparations on the Ground

So far, there are few indications of significant troop deployments in the frontier regions between the neighboring states.

Nonetheless, in the country, state television has shown graduation ceremonies of numerous trainees at different defense facilities.

The head of human resources department of the military, General Hachalu, stated recently in an interview that the defense forces was in a "reliable position" as "numerous of recruits" were enlisting, which he said was "a warning to our enemies".

Previous Origins of the Conflict

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

Following the end of Italian rule, it was then managed by the UK forces before evolving into a integrated region of Ethiopia.

But in the early 1960s Emperor Haile Selassie I terminated this system and Eritrea became completely integrated into the Ethiopian state.

A thirty-year internal conflict occurred, ending with the government's loss in 1991. Autonomy was then confirmed by voters in a vote in 1993.

For a few years in the 1990s, there were positive ties between the leadership in Ethiopia's capital and Asmara, but they disagreed over the exact location of their shared boundary, leading to war in 1998.

Although this finished in a ceasefire agreement in 2000, it was never fully implemented, and the neighbors stayed at odds.

This ended in 2018, when the Prime Minister made approaches to Eritrean President President Isaias. The both leaders endorsed a announcement that the hostilities was over – a move that earned the Prime Minister the Nobel Peace Prize.

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

But relations have later worsened again.