Battling Brothers - Ethiopia and Eritrea – Ethiopian Journey – Blog Post no 72

Eritrean President and Late Prime minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia

Ethiopia and India have something in common. Both have a long-lasting military conflict with one of their neighbours. India has fought many wars with Pakistan and is still fighting a proxy, so-called ideology based war.

Ethoipia and Eritrea Maps 

Similarly, Ethiopia has fought and is still fighting with its neighbour to the north, Eritrea. Let us look at some facts and figures.

India’s land size is 32,87,000 million square km and Pakistan land size is 7,96,095 square km. Pakistan land size is almost a quarter of India’s size. By Comparison, Ethiopia’s land size is 11,04,000 square km and Eritrea is only 117,600 square km, one-tenth of Ethiopia’s size.

Eritrea is the 99th smallest country in the world according to size. Eritrea and Telangana state (112,077 square km) are of the same size, what a coincidence!!!

Tigray

Oromo

Amhara

Somali

Sidama

Ethiopia’s relations with Eritrea are quite difficult to explain, especially from a foreigner’s perspective. Ethiopia is the homeland of many tribes; Oromos 34.5%, Amhara 26.9%, Somali 6.2%, Tigray 6.1%, Sidama 4%, Gurage 2.5% and Wolayta 2.3%. Of these, the Oromos, Amharas, Somali and Tigray make up for the majority and they all have inbuilt contradictions among themselves.

Eritrea: In the middle ages Eritrea was called Medri Bahri (sea-land). The name Eritrea comes from the Greek name for Red sea (Erythra Thalassa). It first came to the notice of the eastern world with the formation of Italian Eritrea in 1889. Italy had left an indelible impression on Eritrea and its mark is profound in the country’s architecture especially in the capital city of Eritrea, Asmara. Asmara was referred to as ‘Little Rome’ by the doting Italians.

Eritrea Map

The territory later became Eritrea Governorate in 1936. But when the Italian army was defeated by the British army in 1942, Eritrea came under the British administration.  After deliberations in the United Nations, it was decided that Eritrea would be self-governed for its domestic affairs through an elected Eritrean Parliament while trade, foreign affairs and defence would be handled in a federal status with the Government of Ethiopia.

But in 1962, the government of Ethiopia cancelled the Eritrean Parliament and annexed Eritrea as one of the provinces of Ethiopia. But by then Eritreans guessed what the Ethiopian government was up to and therefore in 1960, they formed the Eritrean Liberation Front. After 30 years of armed struggle, Eritrea gained its de-facto independence in 1991. The name of the new state was defined as the State of Eritrea.

EPRDF

The freedom fight for separation from Ethiopia had a very interesting twist to it. After the dethroning of the Hailey Selassie’s government, Ethiopia was ruled by the Derg regime which was supported and funded by the USSR. But by the late eighties, USSR started weakening and its grip on its ‘friendly’ supported countries, started to decline.

By this time the fighters of two countries came together -  The Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) and the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a  rainbow coalition front consisting of The Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO), the Amhara National Democratic Movement  (ANDM), the Southern Ethiopian Democratic Movement (SEPDM) and the Tigrayan Liberation Front (TPLF).

Derg Regime 

The combined fronts defeated the Derg regime and that paved for the formation of a new government in Ethiopia headed by Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front and the Prime Minister was Meles Zenawi who himself was the head of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Ex-Prime Minister of Ethiopia Meles Zenawi 

Although Meles and his administration claimed that they preferred a united but federal state that included the Eritrean state, as Meles’s TPLF fought together with EPLF, Meles left the decision to the Eritrean citizens hoping that the independence referendum would vote against secession from Ethiopia.

However, after the EPLF secured their borders and after the majority of Eritreans voted for independence on 24 May 1993, Isaias Afewerki became the leader of Eritrea.

President of Eritrea Isaias Afewerki 

This is what led to bad relations between the two neighbouring countries. The Eritrean – Ethiopian War took place from May 1998 to June 2000 between two of the world's poorest countries. Both spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the war and suffered tens of thousands of casualties as a direct consequence of the conflict.

Eritrean Army 

Ethiopian Army 

According to a ruling by an international commission in The Hague, Eritrea broke international law and triggered the war by invading Ethiopia. At the end of the war, Ethiopia held all of the disputed territories and had advanced into Eritrea. After the war ended, the Eritrea – Ethiopia Boundary Commission, a body founded by the UN, established that Badme, the disputed territory at the heart of the conflict, belongs to Eritrea.

Badme region

As of now, Ethiopia still holds the territory near Badme, including the town itself. One of my Ethiopian colleagues very proudly said that it was the Indian army under deputation to the United Nation that patrols the Eritrea - Ethiopia border. I felt so very proud that our country is keeping the peace between these two beautiful countries of the Horn of Africa under the aegis of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). The entire peacekeeping force (the Dogra regiment) was from India.

Indian Dogra regiment, UNMEE

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) was established by the United Nations Security Council in July 2000 to monitor a ceasefire in the border war that began in 1998 between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The mission maintained its headquarters in Asmara (Eritrea), and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), and consisted of 1,676 military personnel. 1,500 of these peacekeepers were from the Indian Army. In addition, there were about 147 international civilians, 202 local civilians and 67 UN Volunteers. USMEE withdrew its operations in 30th July 2008.

Asmara, Eritrea 

Asmara, the capital of Eritrea:  is locally known as Asmera and has an interesting story behind its name.  Legend says that women from four villages came together and built the first church and it was a mission accomplished. From those words came the name of the city, Asmera ("They made them unite" in Tigrinya).

Asmara, Eritrea 

Asmara is the capital city and the largest city of Eritrea. It has a population of just over 800,000 inhabitants and sits at an elevation of 2,325 metres (7,628 feet). At 2,325 metres it is the sixth highest capital in the world by altitude. In 2017, the city was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Indian faculty friends who worked in Asmara told me that the city is very nice to work in and that Eritreans are very similar to Ethiopians in their work culture and customs. The city is spectacularly clean and has a very pleasant climate - what in India is referred to as a ‘hill station climate’, very mild and enjoyable. The only grouse that the Indian faculty had is that the salary earned in Eritrea is only repatriable by 60% meaning that 40% of salary has to be spent in Eritrea itself.

Unlike the 60% only repatriable rule that Eritrea enforces on its foreign workers, Ethiopia till very recently allowed, 100% repatriation; 100% of salary can be saved and sent to India. But I am told that new rules have been framed and that from this year’s contract there is income tax being levied on expatriate salaries. This might mean a death knell for Indian teachers teaching in Ethiopia – what with salaries increasing in India and the double whammy of the increased cost of living and imposition of income tax will make Ethiopia a less preferred destination.