Ethiopia-Eritrea Rapproachment

On July 9, 2018 Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship. On July 17, 2018 Ethiopia announced plans for landlocked Ethiopia to use Eritrea’s port of Assab. Ethiopia’s proposed use of Assab has implications for the indigenous Afar people who have lived in the port area for two thousand years. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Eritrea and the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea found that Eritrea engaged in widespread persecution of the Afar people, including evicting them from the port area of Assab without any compensation. Both UN entities found that this persecution amounted to crimes against humanity. This paper considers the legal consequences for Ethiopia and Ethiopian officials if they use the Assab port area taken from the Afar by criminal means: will they be involving themselves in Eritrea’s crimes? The paper then considers alternative arrangements from the perspective of where the interests of Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Afar are anticipated to converge. It concludes with proposals to resolve the present untenable situation.