by Mebrak Ghebreweldi
For more than a century, political elites in Ethiopia have pursued a regional expansionist project supported by powerful international allies. This ambition has fuelled repeated wars, destabilised neighbouring states, triggered mass migration and undermined the social and economic development of the entire Horn of Africa. Peace has been eroded repeatedly, and once more Ethiopia’s leaders are dragging the region toward a dangerous and unnecessary confrontation.
As someone who lived thirteen years at the front line in Nakfa and Northeastern Sahel, I witnessed the bodies of thousands of Ethiopian conscripts who died in endless invasions and counter offensives, and the many who were captured alive. Some details are better told by the Ethiopian generals who commanded those battlefields, such as General Kassaye Chemeda, whose Soviet-made T-55 tanks crushed the mothers and children of She’eb. These crimes remain alive in Eritrean memory.
Above are images of Denden Mountain (southeast of Nakfa), the tip of Wancha, and the Hday Valley—terrain Ethiopia coveted for a decade, bombarding it day and night with ordnance whose fragments still litter the ground. Yet it was territory they could never conquer. Thousands of poor Ethiopian soldiers were sent to their deaths in futile, repeated frontal assaults that achieved nothing.
Eritreans may forgive, but we do not forget. The young EPLF fighters adhered to international law even in the harshest moments of war. They spared the lives of people who now hold senior positions in Ethiopia, including General Bacha Debele Buta (Ethiopia’s Ambassador to Kenya), General Aba Dula Gemeda (birth name Menase Wolde Giorgis and former Speaker of Ethiopian Parliament), Field Marshal Birhanu Jula Gelelcha (Ethiopia’s Chief of General Staff) and many others. They know exactly what they left behind in the mountains of Nakfa and in the deserts of Sahil, in battles such as Wuqaw, Nadew, Naro, Kisad Adi Shirum, Elabered and the plains of Semhar. Their survival was not luck, but the result of our humanity. Yet today these same former prisoners, after enjoying long lives and prosperity, beat the drums of war again, while the youth who died in Sahel remain remembered only by their poor mothers.
Azhara River Bed leading to Ma’amido and Marsa Gulbub
The roots of Ethiopia’s expansionist mindset run deep. Successive Ethiopian leaders seem to inherit an old imperial ambition the moment they enter Arat Kilo in Addis Ababa. They depend heavily on foreign powers for their economy and military while clinging to a myth of a three-thousand-year Solomonic identity. Rather than accepting their true history, they repeat the same behaviour, accusing neighbours, threatening war, and interfering in Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya and South Sudan. The very individuals saved by Eritrean restraint now call for war to occupy a sovereign country in order to control the Red Sea.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is not merely asking for access to the sea; he is advancing a fabricated historical claim that the Red Sea “belonged” to Ethiopia before Italian colonisation, an era that predates the very formation of the Ethiopian state itself. By doing so, he dismisses binding international treaties and implicitly challenges the legitimacy of Eritrea’s independence. But Eritrea was never Ethiopia’s possession. From 1557 to the 1860s the Red Sea coast was under Ottoman administration, after which Italian control gradually expanded and was formalised with the creation of the colony of Eritrea in 1890. A unified Ethiopian polity, as we understand it today, did not exist prior to the twentieth century; much of modern Ethiopia was assembled through the military campaigns of Emperor Menelik II. Abiy’s narrative therefore discards established historical fact, denies Eritrea’s sovereignty, and manufactures a dangerous pretext for conflict.
Eritrea calls on Ethiopia to end this hostility. Enough is enough! The Horn of Africa has suffered too long from Ethiopia’s expansion, bullying and interference, especially since the 1940s. When Abiy declared to his parliament that Ethiopia must obtain the Red Sea “by peace or by force” and when Ethiopian elites and self-declared historians echoed the same rhetoric, it became clear that the old imperial vision has resurfaced once again. This moment requires reflection on the historical patterns and the heavy price paid by ordinary people across the region.
Modern Ethiopia took shape through military expansion in the late nineteenth century under Emperor Menelik II. Through force, Oromo, Somali, Sidama, Afar, Wolayta and other peoples were brought under central rule. Later, under Haile Selassie, a powerful myth of an ancient Solomonic kingdom was promoted. Western governments embraced this myth because Ethiopia served their strategic interests during the Cold War, and in return they shielded Ethiopia from criticism.
Throughout my childhood and youth, Ethiopia never acted alone. Its governments were repeatedly armed and protected by global superpowers. Under Haile Selassie, Ethiopia received extensive American and British military assistance. After Ethiopia unlawfully dissolved the Eritrea–Ethiopia Federation, established by United Nations Resolution 390 A (V) of 1950, the United States built its major intelligence base, Kagnew Station, in Asmara. This deepened Ethiopia’s suppression of Eritrea’s right to independence and contributed to the thirty-year war.
When the Derg seized power in 1974, the Soviet Union replaced the United States as Ethiopia’s primary backer. Between 1976 and 1991, Ethiopia became the largest recipient of Soviet military aid outside the Eastern Bloc. Support from Cuba, East Germany and South Yemen prolonged the war and cost hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian conscripts with their lives. Eritreans paid with the lives of their youth, their people fighting an army backed first by the West and then by the Soviet superpower.
From 1961 to 1991, Ethiopia fought to prevent Eritreans from exercising their right to self-determination. The war was both an assault on Eritrean sovereignty and a human tragedy for Ethiopia itself. Millions of Ethiopian youths were sent to die in Sahel and Nakfa. The mountains and deserts of Eritrea became the graveyard of a generation whose destiny was decided by imperial ambitions they did not choose. I lived through these years at the front. The loss of so many young lives remains painful to recall, especially when new leaders show they have learned nothing from history.
In 1977 Ethiopia also waged another large-scale war in the Ogaden, this time against Somalia. Somalia initially advanced, but when the Soviet Union shifted its support to Ethiopia, everything changed. Massive Soviet airlifts delivered tanks, aircraft, artillery and thousands of Cuban troops. Somalia was forced out by early 1978. The war killed tens of thousands and marked the beginning of Somalia’s long political collapse. Ethiopia and Soviet Union shift the war to eliminate the Eritrean people movement for freedom led by EPLF.
Again in 2006 Ethiopia invaded Somalia, this time with American backing. United Nations reports later confirmed that this intervention accelerated the rise of Al-Shabaab, further destabilising the region. Ethiopia extended its influence at the cost of regional security.
Ethiopia’s interference has also shaped events in Sudan and South Sudan. It supported or hosted Sudanese rebel groups, placed itself at the centre of IGAD negotiations and used these positions to protect its own strategic interests.
After Eritrea gained independence in 1991, Ethiopia and its allies imposed two rounds of politically motivated sanctions on Eritrea, Resolution 1907 in 2009 and Resolution 2023 in 2011. These weakened Eritrea economically while Ethiopia continued military occupation and regional interference with impunity. Refused to implement the final and binding 2002 ruling of the Eritrea–Ethiopia Boundary Commission under the Algiers Agreement, while its international supporters remained silent.
Ethiopia further escalated matters by encouraging Eritrean youth to flee through facilitated migration. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, funded by the EU and the United States, paid Ethiopia millions to erect rows of white tents along the Eritrea–Tigray border where Eritrean youth could leave without questions. At the same time Ethiopia unlawfully deported more than one hundred thousand Eritreans from Ethiopian cities, confiscating their property. International law was openly violated, yet Ethiopia was shielded from accountability.
Today we face the same question. Will the international community force Abiy Ahmed to respect international law and abandon his attempt to ignite another war in the Horn of Africa. My lived experience offers no basis to expect fairness. My generation fought Ethiopia and the superpowers who armed it. My trust remains only in the Eritrean people, who defended their sovereignty with sacrifice as deep as the Red Sea, soaked with the blood of Eritrean youth.
International law is clear. The United Nations Charter prohibits the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. It protects the right of peoples to self-determination. Ethiopia violated these principles during the struggle for independence and continues to undermine them today through public threats not only to access the Red Sea but to own it by force.
The Horn of Africa has paid an immeasurable price for these ambitions. Millions of young lives have been lost. Families have been displaced. Entire nations have been pushed into instability. Ethiopian political elites pursued imperial dreams while ordinary people carried the consequences.
Having lived through war, I know its cost. I fear that today’s Ethiopian leadership has not learned from history. The same expansionist and myth-driven thinking continues. Without accountability and honest reflection, another generation of Ethiopian youth may be sacrificed to a vision that has brought nothing but destruction. Eritrean sovereignty is not open for negotiation. Ethiopia must forget its dream of owning the Red Sea, just as its army once dreamed of reaching Nakfa but never did. We can and should live in peace. Access to the Red Sea for trade has always been open and remains so. Ownership is another matter entirely.
The Horn of Africa needs peace built on truth, respect for sovereignty, historical accuracy and international law. The era of using myths, alliances and military pressure to dominate neighbours must end. Ethiopia must confront its past honestly and learn from the immense human cost of its policies.
Calling a spade a spade is not hostility. It is a plea for truth, responsibility and the protection of future generations across our region.
Conclusion
Ethiopia has crossed a line no responsible nation crosses. Abiy Ahmed’s open threats to seize the Red Sea are reckless, illegal and dangerous. He must be stopped. The region has bled enough under Ethiopian expansionism, and we will not allow another generation to die for an illusion built on myth and arrogance. Eritrea’s sovereignty is not up for negotiation. If Abiy chooses war, he alone will answer for the consequences. The time for polite language is over. The truth must be said plainly. Ethiopia must step back now.
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