Table of Contents
ETHIOPIAN AND ERITREAN HISTORY
•100 AD to 10th century – Modern-day Eritrea was part of the Axum Empire, which in its heyday dominated the Red Sea coast and vast stretches of the Horn of Africa.
•It was one of the earliest Christian kingdoms after its rulers converted during the 4th century
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• 1890 – Italy formally creates a colony from a thin and craggy swathe of land along the Red Sea and names it “Eritrea” – an Italianized version of a Greek word that means “red land”.
• Rome uses it as a launchpad to invade Ethiopia six years later but its troops are routed by Emperor Menelik’s forces in the town of Adwa, the first defeat by a black African army of a European empire.
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• 1935 – Eritrea remains an Italian colony for another four decades. But to avenge the debacle of Adwa, Italy’s Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini launches a full-scale invasion of Ethiopia
. •With the support of British troops, Ethiopian soldiers enter the capital Addis Ababa in 1941, marking the end of the occupation.
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•1952 – Eritrea is officially federated with Ethiopia two years after the United Nations approved a resolution backing a bid by Emperor Haile Selassie, despite some calls for a referendum.
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• 1962 – Haile Selassie dissolves the arrangement and annexes Eritrea. A year earlier, a small group of Eritreans launched the war for independence that stretched for three decades.
• 1993 – Eritrea formally secedes from Ethiopia after a referendum and Isaias Afwerki is appointed president. The Red Sea state initially enjoys warm ties with Ethiopia
•1998 – After two years of tensions over trade and other issues, clashes break out along the border over ownership of the disputed town of Badme, before evolving into a full-scale war. • More than 70,000 Ethiopian citizens of Eritrean origin are expelled from Ethiopia.
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• 2000 – A peace agreement is signed, brokered by the Organisation of African Unity – the precursor of the African Union – with both sides agreeing to accept an arbitration ruling. An estimated 80,000 people are thought to have died during the two-year war.
• In 2000, Eritrea and Ethiopia signed the Algiers Agreement which forwarded the border dispute to a Hague boundary commission. In the Agreement both parties agreed in advance to comply with the ruling of the Border Commission. In 2002, the commission ruled on where the boundary ran, placing Badme inside Eritrean territory.
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• 2002 – A Hague-based boundary commission hands Badme to Eritrea, but Ethiopia calls for dialogue and says it wants to hold discussions with Asmara before implementing the ruling, which Eritrea rejects.
PEACE
• April 2018 – Former army officer Abiy Ahmed is appointed as Ethiopian premier and vows to seek peace with Eritrea. In June, the 41-year-old announces that Ethiopia would honour the provisions of the 2000 peace deal and the boundary commission ruling delivered two years later.
• He visits Asmara a month later and signs a pact on the resumption of ties. The two nations declare an end to their “state of war”.
ETHIOPIAN WITHDRAWAL
•In June 2018, following a meeting of the executive council of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the ruling party in Ethiopia, the government of Ethiopia announced plans to withdraw from Badme and cede it to Eritrea
ETHIOPIA
• It shares borders with Eritrea to the north and northeast, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. Ethiopia also has the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Africa.
• With over 102 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world
• Capital and largest city is Addis Ababa
• Official languages – Amharic • Currency – Birr
ERITREA
• Capital – Asmara • Currency – Nakfa • Eritrea is a one-party state in which national legislative elections have never been held since independence
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