The cornerstone of Egypt's foreign policy has long been driven by a dual objective: establishing absolute hegemony over the Nile River and rendering Ethiopia a landlocked nation. To achieve this destructive goal, Cairo has historically weaponized Eritrea as its primary geopolitical instrument. Historical records indicate that King Farouk of Egypt exerted immense diplomatic pressure at the United Nations, aggressively lobbying for Eritrea to be handed over to Egypt or for its western lowlands to be annexed to Sudan.
When these diplomatic maneuvers of partition and annexation failed, Cairo shifted its strategy in the late 1950s toward proxy warfare. Egypt began organizing, arming, and funding Eritrean insurgents. The establishment of the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) in Cairo was not merely a symbolic gesture; Egypt provided vital military training and a robust propaganda apparatus that fueled a protracted war, ultimately fracturing the Ethiopian state. This destabilization campaign continued seamlessly with Cairo's subsequent backing of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF).
A monumental geopolitical error occurred in 1991 when the transitional government in Addis Ababa—lacking the legal mandate to determine matters of national sovereignty and foreign affairs—hastily recognized Eritrean secession. This rushed political miscalculation deeply compromised Ethiopia's historical and geopolitical rights.
The acceleration of this secession process was heavily orchestrated by the then-United Nations Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, an Egyptian national. By utilizing the global institution to execute Cairo's long-term strategic desires, Boutros-Ghali pushed forward a hasty referendum designed specifically to isolate Ethiopia from the Red Sea. In January 1993, when Addis Ababa University students took to the streets to peacefully protest this historical injustice and the secretary-general's visit, their pleas were met with violence and bloodshed. Ignoring the legitimate grievances of the students, Boutros-Ghali proceeded to Eritrea to celebrate what was fundamentally an Egyptian diplomatic triumph.
The consequences of this orchestrated process were devastating. Ethiopia was stripped of its geopolitical leverage and rendered entirely landlocked, while Ethiopians residing in Assab and its surrounding areas were subjected to brutal displacement and the systemic confiscation of their properties.
Following its independence, rather than focusing on the socio-economic development of its citizens, the Eritrean state dedicated its existence to repaying its historical debt to Egypt. For decades, Asmara’s foreign policy has been singularly defined by an obsessive drive to destabilize Ethiopia. This has been executed through the continuous training of various armed militant groups, the orchestration of relentless propaganda campaigns, and the instigation of conflicts among neighboring nations.
Today, this destructive historical alliance has morphed into a new, alarming phase. Having failed to halt the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Egypt is now actively colluding with Eritrea and other actors to thwart Ethiopia’s legitimate and peaceful quest for sovereign sea access. This emerging coalition is a calculated attempt to subject Ethiopia to a regional encirclement from the eastern flank.
Concurrently, the Afar people—the indigenous and historical inhabitants of the Assab region—have been pushed to the brink of an existential crisis. For the past thirty-five years, the Eritrean regime has worked tirelessly to marginalize, impoverish, and systematically uproot the Afar from their ancestral lands in Assab.
"Presently, deep-seated fears are mounting among the local population that the remaining Afar community will be completely displaced from their native territories to pave the way for an Egyptian military base in Assab. The looming threat that Eritrea might hand over the strategic port of Assab to Cairo, driven purely by its deep-seated animosity toward Ethiopia, represents a highly dangerous trajectory. The international community must recognize that such a provocative move would not only resurrect the grave historical injustices of the past but also severely and irreversibly destabilize the entire Horn of Africa."
