ports

One of the areas of the conflict to have greatly exacerbated the relationship between the two countries is the use of ports. Since Eritrea’s independence Ethiopia became landlocked. Its access to the sea was, however,
regulated by the Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation between
the Transitional Government of (TGE) and the State of Eritrea (1993) which specified the free use by Ethiopia of two Eritrean ports,
Assab and Massawa.

According to Eritrean authorities this regulation has favored Ethiopia
enabling it, at a negligible charge, to take advantage of both ports.
Moreover,under Eritrean eyes, the rate of Ethiopian employment in both
port cities was too high. Naturally, Ethiopia perceived this shared use of ports from a totally opposite angle. Namely, it argued its right to control Assab
on the basis to the colonial Treaty of Derg which supposedly delineated the port as “Assab administration”, separate from Eritrea.

Also, Ethiopian authorities accentuated their enormous investment in the port which was not far from truth. Indeed, Ethiopia has sunk a vast
amount of money to renovate the port that, at the end of the day, turned out
to be of a marginal use.

But whether Eritrea has, in real, violated the Agreement of 1993 remains disputable. One could argue that the maritime blockade on Ethiopia has brought more economic harm to Eritrea. Clearly, large
part of Eritrean revenue used to be derived from the Ethiopian port fees
and therefore it would have been fairly unreasonable for Eritrean government to play down its own economic growth.

Ethiopians, however, felt that Eritrea intentionally strangulated their economy. From Ethiopia's point of view Eritrea has continuously attempted
to disrupt the flow of Ethiopian imports and exports imposing the maritime embargo. What is more, the Ethiopian authorities saw Eritrea’s sea blockade as an explicit provocation of war which Ethiopia has ignored by looking
for some alternative sea outlets such as the port of Djibouti.

It follows, then, that the unequivocal and strenuous handling of the ports
by both countries has largely worsened the already existing economic
tensions thereby augmenting and intensifying the overall conflict.

HomepageI Causes of War I Territorial I Economic I Nakfa
Divergent economic policies I The ports
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