Ethiopia’s pursuit of better access to the Red Sea to foster economic opportunities raises disputes with Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia as they assert safeguarding their territorial sovereignty.
On October 19, Djibouti, along with Eritrea and Somalia, declined Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s request for direct access to a Red Sea port, which is a bustling route for global maritime trade.
Recalling that the two countries “have always maintained strong, friendly relations,” Alexis Mohamed, Advisor to the President of Djibouti interviewed by Bloomberg explicitly stated that “Djibouti is a sovereign country, and therefore, our territorial integrity is not questionable, neither today nor tomorrow.”
Somalia and Eritrea used the same rhetoric. Ali Omar, Somalia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, affirmed that its “country’s sovereignty was sacrosanct and not open for discussion.” They were all adamant about the impossibility of negotiating anything that affected their sovereignty.
According to Abiy Ahmed, access to the Red Sea will determine the fate of Ethiopia between two paths: development or decline.
In 1993, Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia and thus lost its seafront. From then on, Ethiopia became a landlocked country, devoid of any maritime access. Ethiopia shares its border with Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti, all of which have access to the Red Sea.
The Red Sea serves as a crucial gateway in the global economy and as one of the three “highways” of the sea. It is an essential gateway between Europe and Asia, and accounts for 40% of the world’s maritime traffic. Access for Ethiopia to the Red Sea would heavily bolster its economic opportunities.
Ethiopia relies on the port of Djibouti for maritime commerce by paying them a fee to use their port. This access to the port of Djibouti costs Ethiopia 2 billion dollars per year and considers it is not bearable anymore.
Ethiopia wants, by trying to negotiate with those three countries, to regain some autonomy and develop their economy on their own.
An access to the sea that benefits everyone?
International law — the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — allows landlocked states to use ports of their neighboring coastal countries and gives them the right to the “exploitation of an appropriate part of the surplus of the living resources of the exclusive economic zones of the coastal States of the same subregion.” A treaty needs to be signed between the involved countries.
On Ethiopian television, Abiy Ahmed raised the idea that access to the Red Sea should be a collaborative effort based on mutual understanding and shared interests, rather than a unilateral decision. He highlighted the need for negotiation and reciprocity, suggesting that offering access to a port could facilitate regional integration and bring mutual benefits, creating a more favorable situation for all parties involved.
The Prime Minister emphasized Ethiopia’s vital role as a major water and energy supplier for the region due to its access to the Nile River. He also noted the construction of a natural gas pipeline connecting Ethiopia to Djibouti, entirely funded by Ethiopia.
“Declaring ‘I will take yours, but I won’t give you mine’ is not appropriate. Ethiopia, indeed, has every right to pursue access to the Red Sea,” Abiy claimed.
He also declared that he could give shares in its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Africa’s largest dam and a strategic infrastructure for Ethiopia and the region, in exchange for shares in their ports but they refused.
Now that Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia have declined Ethiopia’s offer, international law and the International Court of Justice are the last options available to Ethiopians to resolve this dispute peacefully.
If the dispute is not resolved, Abiy Ahmed mentioned that future conflicts with Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti could arise. The Ethiopian Prime Minister, highly criticized for his answer to the civil war in the Tigray region, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his efforts to restore peace to the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
