Dehai News

Ethiopia’s Hollow Sea Access Agenda

In the world we live in, every one person and every nation faces countless constraints of one sort or another. This is natural and no one can undo anything about the actuality of these constraints. What one can do is to recognize and accept this fact and work for best possible mitigating solution. Reality cannot be undone but leveraged with a mind-set of vision and strategic action.

In this short article I want to argue against the absurd and fallacious narration of justification on Ethiopian claim of the Eritrean port of Asseb in order to solve its problem of access to the sea. However I must make it clear that my prime target audience for this article are those foreigners and Ethiopians who may be young enough not to know the past history between Eritrea and Ethiopia and who have been inundated and mislead with falsified Ethiopian propaganda in respect of issues of access to the sea. My argument must be taken history as told by the owners of the true history.

The current Ethiopian government started pushing the sea access agenda when the prime minister of Ethiopia break with Eritrea after eight years of rapprochement and measured evolving bilateral cooperation. He then buried his unequivocal declaration of acceptance of the Algeries agreement which earned him the Noble Peace Price for 2025. He virtually turned things upside down and embarked on the mission of invading and annexing the Eritrean port of Asseb. This was a disgraceful and treacherous decision that haunts the region with a cloud of existential threat to the neighbouring countries.

The following is a sample of his justification arguments:

The First, Economic Factor: the argument goes like this- Ethiopia with a population of about 130 million and ever growing, needs a sea port but it does not have its own. Therefore either by peaceful means of by force, Ethiopia must have a port of its own along on the Red Sea coast preferably on the Eritrean Red Sea seashore.

Ok! The parallel logic here is any populous country is entitled to overcome any natural constraint it faces preferably by peaceful means and by means of military force if the first modality fails to deliver.

Can one find logic and meaning in such outlandish and in comprehensible absurdity. I will not spend effort on this. There are 44 or plus landlocked countries in the world and all have
accepted this constraint and are able to accomplish their maritime businesses successfully with bilateral, sub-regional and regional agreements. A number of these countries have managed to secure multiple access routes to the sea without hindrance. The economic success of Austria and Switzerland is more than a concrete example of overcoming geographical constraint and the application of the knowledge of the law of geography.

In any event and in so far we know, this scenario is in comma! Only time will tell how viable this strategy is.

The Second Argument -Reclaim Lost Ownership: This argument squarely claims the Eritrea port of Asseb as belonging to Ethiopia. It asserts that Ethiopia lost Asseb because the Tigrean Liberation Front ceded the port to Eritrea at the time of independence of the later. Ethiopia therefore declares Asseb must repossessed so that, Ethiopia can also establish its Naval Force in addition. The notion that Asseb was given to Eritrea is a deliberate tactic and employed by Ethiopian propagandists to promote their futile and illegal cause. Here there are two cardinal facts that the reader must take. The first is that Eritrea did not secede from Ethiopia as it has never been a part of Ethiopia. Eritrea liberated itself from Ethiopian occupation. The second fact is, Ethiopia became landlocked because it always had been a second landlocked country.

When a country becomes independent by its might and sacrifice, there is no room for generosity. Lies do not deliver however and by whomever told! Ethiopians must stop telling this false story.

As regards ownership of the Eritrean port of Asseb, Elite Ethiopians very well knew then and now that their claim was, is and will be FALSE. But they acted and still continue to act with full knowledge of this using absolute deceitfulness and disinformation enriched with falsified accusation of all sorts against Eritrea and its government.

For the readers of this article who may be less versed on the historical relationship between Eritrea and Ethiopia I say this: the absurdity of Ethiopia’s claim of the Eritrean Port of Asseb is that, neither Eritrea nor Ethiopia can present a uniquely separate legal document of ownership.

Let me clarify. For Eritrea it would be absolute meaninglessness for the obvious reason. Eritrea without Asseb is Nothingness as this would nullify its creation as a country with its foundational borders. Eritrea is Eritrea ONLY when Asseb is Eritrean. Nor would Ethiopia be a country one can recognize if Asseb was made part of Ethiopia

Equally fundamental, Ethiopia has never owned Asseb or had never ever possessed an inch of Eritrean Red Sea coastal land as part of its jurisdictional territory. Of course Ethiopia as an aggressor set foot on the Eritrean Red Sea coast for the first time when Eritrea was tied to imperial Ethiopia in a dubious federal arrangement subsequent to the end of British provisional administration in 1962. The federal arrangement which was imposed against the will of the Eritrean people, was unilaterally abolished in 1962 and Eritrea was taken by Ethiopia which triggered one of the longest war of liberation the world had seen. Ethiopia’s forceful annexation ended when Eritrea defeated and drove the occupying Ethiopian forces after 30 years of protracted war of independence. In 1993 almost 99% of the people of Eritrea voted for independence in a referendum to decide the future fate of the country. Eritrea became an independent country and joined the community of nations with its foundational borders intact.

Furthermore, I invite the readers to critically observe the following maps in order to appreciate the truthful trajectory of the historical relation between Eritrea and Ethiopia as illustrated in the maps below.

Map 1.Eritrea’s borders at its creation 1890 Map 2. Eritrea’s borders as annexed to

Ethiopia in the federal framework

Map 3.Eritrea at independence Map 4. Eritrea After independence

NB: Please note that the geographical borders of Eritrea remained fixed as ever. Eritrea’s shape was, is and will be as we see it now.

Map 5. Ethiopia and Eritrea as neighbours 1902 Map 6. Ethiopia in1945

NB: borders of Ethiopia are nowhere close to smell the sea breeze.

Map 7. Modern Ethiopia. Will this map continue to depict Ethiopia given the current tendency of fragmentation?

Clearly the above maps may help the reader understand the nullity of Ethiopian claim.

The geographical border between Eritrea and Ethiopia as with so many African countries, is the bequest of colonial treaties. These treaties have been accepted as sacrosanct frame of reference to resolve border disputes either through political will of the parties involved or international legal proceedings. The latter is exactly what has been used to reaffirm and once again solidify the instrumentality of the respect of colonial borders between Eritrea and Ethiopia.

It is this veracious historical fact that defines the historical relationship between the two countries and what we Eritreans want to tell all those who care to know the TRUTH. And for all its incongruent and fluctuating ludicrous narration of Asseb ownership, Ethiopia could not present a single word or sentence of legal semblance to back up its claim. That is why, Ethiopia is lobbing around in all directions like a headless chicken with lies and innuendos with the issues of access to the sea flag that never was. If claim something prove with documented evidence permissible in the court of justice.

Certainly every landlocked country in the world needs unhindered access to the sea to conduct its import and export economic activities. But at the same time every country in that situation MUST also accept this geographical constraint and conduct its maritime economic business by accepting and respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the transit country. And so should the demand of Ethiopia for access to sea be anchored on in accordance with UN convention on the Law of the Sea.

Political will through dialogue or international legal proceedings as has taken place between so many countries that find themselves in such a situation would have solved Ethiopia’s access through multiple routes. However, the course of action chaotic Ethiopia chose is not a workable option as it is based on aggressive policy of military invasion to acquire land ownership not only for maritime commercial services but also to establish naval base.

But I must admit that it would seem pointless to argue against baseless argument because it is baseless. It can be mocked or laughed at. But no because the piles of false and invalid storylines vigorously disseminated and fed to the Ethiopian public even though the government has spectacularly failed. Nonetheless this propaganda works are also meant to serve as latent seeds for animating the public for future act of invasion. This really is evil and unprecedented. To store the idea of invasion in the minds of the growing future generation is a sinful act to say the least.

This meant whenever the opportune time comes, Ethiopia must be ready to annex the Eritrean port of Asseb if Eritrea is not willing to give it peacefully. This is a declaration of war in the Horn Region – a critical global geopolitical epicentre. The non-Eritrean and non- Ethiopian readers who may happen to read this article, must understand that this is not a hidden agenda. The Ethiopian government has left no stone unturned to promote this agenda of invasion.

Third Argument: No Port No Peace- Of late the Prime Minister of Ethiopia has loudly and clearly declared that there will not be peace in Horn region and in Africa in general unless and until Ethiopia acquires a sea port of its own. He meant Ethiopia is ready to create havoc and forceful destabilisations throughout areas of its choice. This means Ethiopia has built military force strong enough to effectively blackmail uncompliant countries. Blackmailing is therefore a new tactical instrument Ethiopia intends to weaponise its access to sea agenda.

This is a concern not only to the countries of the Horn of Africa, but to all peace loving people of all nations and as such must be condemned head-on by all!

I conclude by stating that in spite of all the lies and disinformation, Ethiopia’s claim of the Eritrean Port of Asseb was, is and wil be FALSE to a material matter!

Haile Habtegaber

The Netherlands