Ethiopia has no bellicose intentions towards its neighbors but will not abandon its claim to access to the Red Sea, its Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, reaffirmed to MPs on Tuesday, November 14 .
On October 13, Mr. Abiy caused concern by explaining in a long televised speech that peace in the region depended on access to the Red Sea for landlocked Ethiopia and its 120 million inhabitants, who make it the second most populous country in Africa. Two weeks later, however, he assured that Ethiopia would “not assert its interests through war”, but only through dialogue.
“We have no plans to invade other countries, but we will continue to unreservedly demand port access” to the Red Sea, Mr. Abiy repeated on Tuesday, responding to questions from MPs, more than 95% of whom are members of his Prosperity Party. “Not having access to the sea will remain a major problem” for Ethiopia, whose “economy and population are growing”, underlined the Prime Minister, denying any desire to “threaten the sovereignty” of the Neighboring Eritrea, which offered the country a maritime facade when it was attached to it between 1952 and 1991.
Ethiopia wants to “discuss today” with neighboring countries, because “we do not know what the future holds if this request for access to the sea is not resolved peacefully today,” insisted Mr. .Abiy. Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2019 for his rapprochement with Eritrea after thirty years of open or latent war, the leader stressed that his country could no longer depend, as today, on the sole port of Djibouti for its supplies, agitating the specter of hunger if Ethiopia suddenly no longer had access to it.
“We didn’t choose to resolve this through conflict. We said, “Let’s prevent conflict.” If people are hungry, they will do anything rather than accept death,” he explained, assuring that he wanted “equitable and mutual development” of the countries of the Horn of Africa. Mr. Abiy said he was ready to discuss “regional integration in East Africa” promoting “cross-border trade” at any time with countries in the region.
