Eritrea and the african horn

Three hundred years after the Ottoman Empire was founded, its military decided to venture into the naturally rich lands of Africa. In 1557 a force of 1400 to 1500 men invaded The Kingdom of Medri Bahn, a kingdom that would remain under Ottoman rule until it was conquered by the powerful Muhammad Ali dynasty of Egypt and Sudan in the 19th century.

The borders of what we call modern-day Eritrea were decided in 1869 during the infamous Scramble for Africa and the arrival of Italian settlers in 1880. After the death of Ethiopian emperor Johannes IV in battle there was major confusion in the nation giving the Italians the opportunity to form a nation in the highlands of Northern Ethiopia in the year 1889 known as Eritrea, which translates to Sinus Erythraeus in Greek or simply Red Sea in English. Since then, Eritrea has been on a downward trajectory for over a century. The nation has had a long history of army enlistment which began all the way in 1911 when the Italians fought the Ottoman Empire in the war of Libya, which resulted in the Italians gaining more land in Africa. Eritrean soldiers were also enlisted in the first and second wars against Abyssinia (Ethiopia), which once again resulted in Italian victory and the creation of Italian East Africa.

Italian East Africa consisted of the land of the Ethiopian Empire, Italian Somalia and Italian Eritrea. The newly founded colony lasted only eleven years until the Italians were defeated by the Allies during the Second World War. This meant that Italy was forced to concede Italian East Africa to the British. The Brits assigned Military Administrations in Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia and Ogaden (part of Ethiopia) as well as taking Somaliland for themselves. Eritrea remained under British control for one year until the United Nations decided to step in and hold a vote on the future of the nation in 1952. The council decided that Eritrea would become what they called ‘A constituent state’ of The Federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea until they would become an independent nation after ten years.

The introduction to the final report of the United Nations commissioner in Eritrea read, “The General Assembly of the United Nations, at its fifth regular session, recommended that Eritrea should constitute an autonomous unit federated with Ethiopia under the sovereignty of the Ethiopian Crown.” 

The 98-page report –available on the UN Digital Library- also talks about the Shifta Problem in its section titled ‘The Consultation with the inhabitants of Eritrea’. The Shifta were the Freedom Fighters of East Africa, they are often labelled as bandits due to their tendency to fight against any group in power. The Italians and British were both forced to fight against the Shifta Resistance Groups during their time in power. Being a member of these groups was seen as a privilege and an honourable position. Despite the lingering signs of unrest in the Eritrean population, the UN still went through with the federation.

After nine years in the federation, the Eritrean people began to feel mistreated by the Ethiopians. They were forced to carry ID Cards and grew discontent with the leadership style of their Chief Executive, Tedla Bairu. This culminated in the freedom fighter Hamid Idris Awate, beginning the Eritrean War of Independence on the 1st of September 1961. The War of Independence lasted for almost three decades, leading to a total of 225,000 casualties and the end of a 700-year-old Ethiopian Empire.

By May 25th 1991, the Eritrean rebels had defeated the remaining Ethiopian soldiers and marched into the Eritrean capital. The New York Times reported that the city of Asmara had fallen into the hands of the rebels ending the conflict and granting Eritrea freedom for the first time in its history. In its article on the end of the war, the Washington Post read, “The peace-loving people of the world in general and our friends and supporters through our times of struggle in particular, please join us in our moment of jubilation.”

The moment of jubilation lasted a grand total of seven years until Eritrea became involved in yet another conflict with the Ethiopians, this time over disputed territories south on the border. This war lasted for two years and ended in the Ethiopians taking parts of the disputed territories they were fighting over, only for the Court of Arbitration to give the majority of the disputed territories to Eritrea in 2002. Despite this ruling, the Ethiopians decided to occupy the disputed land up until 2017. A peace treaty was signed by the two nations in 2018. The treaty formally ended the Eritrean-Ethiopian war fifty-seven years after the war for independence started.

21st Century Eritrea

The State of Eritrea entered the new century fresh from war, with a falling economy and a national anthem that belongs in the credits section of a movie. Military conscription began in Eritrea in 1995 as the nation began to be embroiled in the conflicts of surrounding nations, such as the First Congo War and the Second Sudanese Civil War in which they played a crucial role.

Many nations across the world have mandatory military service, the list includes ‘first-world countries’, popular tourist nations, and countries known for conflicts. However, no other nation in the world has military service that can be indefinite. Eritrea’s mandatory military service is officially meant to last 18 months and can be served in other sectors of national service such as nursing or agriculture; this is meant to give the world the impression that the Eritrean military service is just like any other in the world. But in reality, the end of your military service is decided by another officer instead of the law and can last for over a decade.

There are so many reasons why the Eritrean people are in the situation they are in, but the one I’d like to look at is the men and women of the United Nations who voted for the Federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea in 1952. It’s easy to look back in hindsight and wonder why the UN decided to join two nations that are still at war over 70 years after the vote was made, but there were still many signs that this was a mistake. Since its origins as the Kingdom of Medri Bahn, Eritrea had been passed around like a rag doll by European superpowers for almost four centuries. Didn’t the voters ever consider the fact that the Eritrean people would want freedom? Another major red flag for the UN is who they were giving the country to, the Ethiopian president’s representatives. Emperor Haile Selassie I reigned over the Ethiopian empire for two different spells of a period of six and thirty-three years each. He was worshipped as a god by some people and labelled a tyrant by others, but in reality, he was a self-centred ruler who did whatever he was asked by the more powerful European giants. The emperor’s very first representative to the region was diplomat Andargachew Messai who was the husband of his eldest daughter.  But to make the situation better Emp. Haile Selassie decided to send his other son-in-law in 1959.

But back to the 21st Century; Eritrea is currently in another war with their historic enemy Ethiopia and I strongly believe that 90% of you didn’t know this was happening. Ethiopia has been embroiled in a civil war which has led to over 9 million people in need of humanitarian food assistance and forced displacement of 2.5 million people. An indefinite truce was agreed upon for humanitarian aid in March 2022 but it’s only a matter of time till someone breaks the ceasefire and war begins again.

Eritreans, not wanting to get caught up in the current war or any war in the future, are trying to leave the nation and seek refuge in countries across the world. Refugees International says that 149,000 refugees have decided to seek refuge in Ethiopia and there are fears over another famine in the nation that saw 1 million people lose their lives in the 1980s. Despite this, the nation of Eritrea and the conflict in Ethiopia is barely mentioned in the mainstream media despite the situation of the war changing on a daily basis and many Ethiopians in Europe wanting to hear how their families in their native country are doing. The media seem to be taking the same stance with Eritrea as they have been doing with Syria since 2011; they talk about the war when it starts and completely ignores it until it ends, or a major atrocity happens. In the case of a major atrocity, it’s given 30 minutes of airtime a day because two famous people are having an argument.

Eritrea is a mess of a country that is an example of poor handling and misuse by European nations. The UN published a report which exposed "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations," in the nation of Eritrea, but as normal with the nation, nobody cared. The current sanctions imposed by the EU and US on the nation are a slap on the wrist compared to what is being done to Russia and North Korea. The moment the mainstream media begins to care about this, millions of people will have lost their lives to the famine in Ethiopia and thousands of others will become slaves to the nation via the military service system. The faster we realise the better.