After greetings,
We reviewed an article written by Mr Mustafa Ahmadi on your newspaper’s website on 17/10/2023 under the title:
“Ethiopia and the Red Sea” and we have the following observations [on the article] regarding what the article mentioned about Eritrea:

First Eritrea since it liberated its land by force in 1991, and held a referendum in 1993 under the supervision of the United Nations and international organisations, its people decided by 99.9 per cent on complete independence. Eritrea became a fully sovereign state and a member of the United Nations.

Second Since that date Eritrea has worked to create an atmosphere of cooperation and solidarity among the countries of the Horn of Africa region, especially with Ethiopia. However, these projects clashed with the interests of the major countries in the region, unfortunately, especially the United States of America, and then failed.

Third Al-Ahram Organisation to which Al-Ahram Weekly belongs, is not far from what has happened and is happening from the events in the region, and who has an interest in fuelling conflicts? The unrest is not in the Horn of Africa region , but in the broader Middle East region.

Fourth The writer says that Eritrea had pledged after the reconciliation that took place between Eritrea and Ethiopia after the events of 2018 (in Ethiopia) and after the war in the Tigray region, that we allow it to use the ports of Assab and Massawa, meaning that the Eritrean president, after achieving his interests and creating a buffer zone between...

Eritrea and the Tigray region did not fulfill his promise. This information has no real relevance. The truth is that since 2002, that is, the issuance of a decision by the Hague Court ruling to demarcate the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia. The previous regime in Ethiopia, led by the Tigray People’s Front for the Liberation of Tigray, and with the support of America, refused to implement the court’s decision and expel a portion of the Eritrean lands that it controlled during the war between 1998 and 2000 AD.

Fifth In the recent war between Abiy Ahmed’s government and the Tigray People’s Front for the Liberation of Tigray, Eritrea was not a party to it, except after it directed the Tigray People’s Front which control the Tigray region adjacent to Eritrea its missiles reached the Eritrean capital Asmara, and threatened Eritrean national security. Eritrea had to take all necessary measures to protect its national security.

Eritrea was, and still is, ready to cooperate with Ethiopia not only by using its ports, but also to achieve regional-economic integration and create a more peaceful climate in the countries of the region to consolidate peace and stability.

As for the threats issued by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed  to the countries of the region whether small or large to reach the shores of the Red Sea, Eritrea is not interested in making K, because we know, as well as the region and the world, how Eritrea ended the actual control of the Ethiopian Empire over its lands,  and this is not far away, and that we believed that threats and claims of power not only did not bear fruit, but could lead to the extinction of those who claim that.

Habib Mohamed Osman
Cultural and media advisor
Embassy of The State of Eritrea
Cairo-Egypt

* A version of this article appears in print in the 26 October, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly