Why Abiy Ahmed Cannot Rewrite Eritrea’s Past

[Deeq A.]

Ethiopia’s expansionist rhetoric cannot brush aside Eritrea’s sovereignty

Abiy Ahmed’s expansionist rhetoric cannot brush aside Eritrea’s sovereignty.

Boosaaso (Commentary) — Where is Asmaron Legesse when Ethiopia needs him most to lecture Abiy Ahmed about the Gadaa system? Professor Legesse wrote a path-breaking study on the Gadaa, an Oromo traditional system he described as peace-enhancing. Legesse contrasted Gadaa with what he viewed as the hierarchical cultures of Northern Ethiopia’s Semitic ethnicities, the Amhara and the Tigray.

Oromummaa, a very anti-Semitic ideology, has replaced Gadaa. And the man fuelling this ideology is Leenco Lata, the former Oromo Liberation Front leader, who several years ago wrote a book in which he envisioned ways people could co-exist in the Horn of Africa. Lata supported the illegal maritime Memorandum of Understanding that Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, signed with the former President of the Somaliland Administration, Muse Bihi Abdi, on 1 January 2024.

On the X platform (formerly Twitter), anti-sovereignty and pro-expansionist supporters of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed,  aim to distort history to claim ownership of Assab Port of Eritrea. One anti-sovereignty die-hard even tweeted a photo of a postage stamp showing the portrait of Emperor Haile Selassie. An Eritrean citizen replied to the misleading tweet with a photo of two postage stamps dating to 1910 entitled Colonia Eritrea.

Ethiopia annexed Eritrea in 1962 after Emperor Haile Selassie rescinded the federal system that had been put in place after Western countries, particularly Britain, decided to have Eritrea incorporated into Ethiopia. Britain also allowed Ethiopia to annex Somali-inhabited territories it was supposed to protect under the Protectorate Agreements the British Empire had signed with Somali “tribes”. No wonder the former UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy reminded Ethiopia of its obligation to seek access to the sea peacefully and with respect for the sovereignty of neighbouring countries.

Ethiopia (even when it was known as Abyssinia) had the benefit of gaining membership of the League of Nations and becoming a founding member of the United Nations. Emperor Haile Selassie used his experience to persuade African countries to adopt the principle of the inviolability of colonial borders, in order to retain Somali and Eritrean territories. The prevailing post–World War II order helped him to attain those goals. Mengistu Haile Mariam put those principles aside when he attempted to annex two of Somalia’s districts in 1982, and he rejected appeals from the former Soviet Union to resolve Ethiopia’s ethno-nationalist question by holding talks with the OLF, EPLF and TPLF.

Abiy Ahmed will repeat Mengistu’s mistake if he does not refrain from making statements that imply aggression against Eritrea. Neither Oromummaa cultnor Medemer will save Abiy Ahmed from the fate of an expansionist simultaneously imitating and insulting former European colonial administrations in the Horn of Africa.

© Puntland Post, 2025

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