ETHIOPIA’S OVERTLY DECLARED WAR AGENDA AGAINST ERITREA

(Verbatim Statements by Ethiopian Government Senior Officials regarding Eritrea’s Sovereignty) 

Abiy Ahmed Ali, Prime Minister of Ethiopia

• “Sovereign access to the sea by any means necessary – through negotiations if possible and by force if necessary, Ethiopia would not remain a prisoner of geography.”
• “Regarding the Red Sea, and speaking about it repeatedly, let me say it again to make my stance clear; why does Israel hold the Golan Heights? Israel holds the Golan Heights because it believes problems regarding national security, survival and its existence… People are born, grow, age and people die, this is natural. Red Sea access and Ethiopia are just like that.”
• “We have found no document – in Cabinet, Parliament and other Government Archives – that asserts Eritrea’s independence”. Taking their cue from the Prime Minister’s incendiary statement, Prosperity Party state media channels actively called on citizens to mobilize and ‘withdraw’ recognition of Eritrea’s 1993 sovereignty, labeling it a ‘historical mistake’.”
• “Adulis, located on the Eritrean Gulf, can be considered one option. Massawa and Assab can also be considered other options. We do not necessarily hold the position that it must be Assab or Massawa. What we seek is simply a breathing (sovereign) outlet, access to the sea.”
• “As you know, five or six years ago we established a navy. Did we establish it so that it [the Navy] could swim around in this glass [container]? I am a million percent certain; Ethiopia will not remain landlocked-whether anyone likes it or not.”
• “For Ethiopia, losing access to the Red Sea took about 30 years [Eritrea’s legitimate struggle for liberation] – after the 30 years’ war, Ethiopia lost it. Now, however, I do not think Ethiopia needs another 30 years to retake it”.
• “Therefore, efforts will be made to resolve the issue and minimize losses. Whether it happens through peace or through force, it is inevitable”.
• “If fighting breaks out, the outcome is clear. After that, crying and wailing will be of no use. If we enter [the war], the outcome is clear. We have sufficient and dependable capability. There is no force that can stop us. This must be clear”.

Field Marshal Berhanu Jula, Chief of Staff of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF)

• “We will strengthen our army. We will accelerate our development. We will obtain access to the sea, whether through peace or through force; through negotiations if possible and by force if necessary – through Bale or Bole”.

General Abebaw Tadesse, Deputy Chief of Staff of the ENDF

• “The offensive launched in Tigray will not stop there. Mekelle is a mere stop-over; our ultimate destination is Assab; our main objective is to raise our flag in the Red Sea”.

Ethiopian Air Force Commander General Yilma Merdasa

• “The main goal is the recovery of sovereign sea access, particularly through the Eritrean port of Assab.”

Maj-Gen. Teshome Gemechu: Director-General of International Relations and Military Cooperation (ENDF)

• “Ethiopia is not a landlocked nation. We are not landlocked. Rather, we are an ocean-linked country. Ethiopia had it. And even though the matter hasn’t been resolved yet, we are not landlocked”.
• “We were created together with the water. We used to have water. The water used to be ours as well as the port. Because it is a special case, we have a double right to demand it”.
• “The Red Sea belongs to Ethiopia. We will take it back at any cost! Assab is Ethiopia’s Red Sea province”.
• “The port of Assab, even its design was made in such a way that it only serves Ethiopia, or starting from the Afar region, focusing only on serving through that route – take this into account as well: in international law, it can serve for a dispute”.

Military Commanders

• Public displayed, at the Inauguration of Military Recruits few months ago, of an official Map of Ethiopia that unlawfully incorporates the port city of Assab and Eritrea’s southern coastal territories.

1. General Alemshet Degife, Advisor to the ENDF and Chief of Staff and Board Chairman of the Defense Engineering Industrial Corporation (DEIC)

• “We have entered a process about a territory we do not control, which connects [us] to other continents, could allow those whom we have historically regarded as our enemies to establish themselves directly within 60 kilometers of us without asking our permission”.

Shimelis Abdisa, President of the Oromia Region

• ” Irrecha [traditional Oromo celebrations] will be celebrated in the Red Sea (Assab), next year.”

General Bacha Debele, Former Ethiopia’s Ambassador to Kenya

• “When we say Assab belongs to Ethiopia, it is because it belongs to Ethiopia. What you [Eritrea] took by force, we will return by force”.
• “Once war breaks out, there will be no such thing as the Government of Eritrea. This must be clearly understood. Geography will change. Governments will change. The borders of countries will also change. The border that exists between Eritrea and Ethiopia will cease to exist”.
• “If the Eritrean Government ceases to exist, what could possibly happen? It will collapse on its own and it will be gone. Isn’t this war? Once a war breaks out like this, there is no distinction between the rear base and front line. In modern warfare, there aren’t separate rear base and front lines. Any place becomes a front line. Asmara cannot remain a rear base area [no-combat zone], while Badme is the front line. Both are the front lines”.

General Tsadkan Gebretensae, Military Advisor to the ENDF

• “I have begun raising the idea that we should correct the mistakes we made previously and seize Assab from them [Eritrea]”.
• “At present, our relationship with Eritrea is not merely an issue of national security, nor merely about raising the question of ports or discussing the Eritrean government. I believe we must recognize, in light of history, that the manner in which we answer the Eritrean question is connected to our very existence”.

Ambassador Dina Mufti, Member of the Federal Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee

• “Ethiopia’s quest for sovereign sea access is non-negotiable”; and he proceeded to aggressively demand international pressure against Eritrea!

Daniel Kibret, Social Affairs Advisor to Ethiopia’s Prime Minister

• “Once Ethiopia obtains access to the sea, the reason for Eritrea being Eritrea will cease!”

Adanech Abebe, Mayor of Addis Ababa City

• “Are we supposed to live forever with the question of our sea closed off to us? There is no young person who will accept living with it closed; at one time it was close to us and we lost it. But this generation will not accept that”.

Lencho Bati, Director General at MoFA of Ethiopia’s Diaspora Service

• “The Ethiopian military that suffered in the deserts of Tigray, will not stop before taking off its shoes by the Red Sea and wash its feet on Eritrean Red Sea waters”.