Ethiopia’s ruling party is rewriting history to justify a false claim over Eritrea’s port. It’s not strategy — but a desperate and dangerous trajectory which can lead the Horn of Africa in a chaos.
It has become a declared mission of Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party to “revise the narrative” of how Ethiopia lost access to the sea — particularly the port of Assab, one of Eritrea’s two principal ports.
In his now-infamous address to Parliament — an audience reduced to taking notes and applauding on cue — the Prime Minister announced: “We need to revise the history and narrative of how Ethiopia lost its connection to the sea coast, the port of Assab.”
Over the past two years, this revisionist project has taken full flight. Turn on any major Ethiopian television network or scroll through government-aligned social media, and you might conclude the country faces no greater crisis than its lack of a Red Sea port. Poverty, inflation, repression, and civil conflict all fade into the background of a new national obsession — the imagined “right” to Assab.
No international law appears firm enough to restrain this political fantasy. No historical record is too sacred to be rewritten. Assab is being recast not as Eritrean territory, but as an Ethiopian birthright unjustly taken — an ancestral wound awaiting restoration.
Fantasy as Policy
The longer this campaign of distortion continues, the more bizarre and detached from reality it becomes. Abiy Ahmed appears intent on turning the “Red Sea question” into the defining crusade of his rule — his imagined legacy, the mark of a “great ruler” in history.
Yet while he dreams of lost coastlines, Ethiopia is disintegrating. Every indicator — economic, political, and social — points to collapse. Inflation is crushing families, regional wars are tearing apart provinces, and the centre holds only through coercion. Amid this chaos, Abiy clings to myth-making as statecraft, believing perhaps that revising the past might redeem his failing present.
From podiums and televised lectures, he does not speak to mend the nation’s wounds, but to project power through illusion. The Prosperity Party’s propaganda machine keeps turning, producing slogans and myths to inflame nationalism and distract from failure.
The Five Myths of the Red Sea Narrative
1. “Ethiopia was unjustly stripped of its coastline.”
This falsehood is the cornerstone of the entire narrative. The Prosperity Party portrays the loss of Assab as an international injustice — a wound inflicted by outsiders. In reality, Eritrea’s sovereignty and borders were affirmed by the International Court of Justice and by Ethiopia itself after the 1998–2000 border war. To deny that fact is not patriotism — it’s political deceit.
2. “Ethiopia’s survival depends on owning a port.”
Repeated endlessly in state media, this argument is emotional, not economic. Dozens of landlocked nations — from Switzerland to Rwanda — prosper through regional cooperation, not conquest. Ethiopia’s problem is not its geography, but its governance. The Prosperity Party’s fixation on maritime access distracts from domestic dysfunction and policy paralysis.
3. “Ethiopia has historic ownership of Assab.”
This claim collapses under historical scrutiny. The Red Sea coast — from Massawa to Assab — was for centuries under Ottoman, Egyptian, Italian, and British control. Ethiopia never held sovereignty there. The “historic ownership” line is pure imperial nostalgia, not historical fact.
4. “Eritrea owes its ports to Ethiopia’s history.”
A newer, more insidious narrative suggests that Eritrea’s very existence owes something to Ethiopia’s ancient empires. This pseudo-historical claim erases Eritrea’s identity and sovereignty. It is neo-imperial rhetoric disguised as national pride — a dangerous delusion that risks reigniting hostility across the Horn.
5. “The Red Sea is Ethiopia’s destiny.”
Abiy now frames the Red Sea not as geography, but as destiny — a divine inheritance. This messianic tone signals the collapse of reasoned diplomacy. When leaders begin invoking destiny to justify expansion, history warns us what follows.
Regional Fallout and Rising Alarm
Abiy’s Red Sea rhetoric is not confined within Ethiopia’s borders. It is reshaping perceptions across the region. Eritrea, fiercely protective of its independence, sees these statements as open provocation. For President Isaias Afwerki — long suspicious of Ethiopian dominance — Abiy’s words confirm old fears.
Neighbouring states like Djibouti, Somalia, and Sudan are also watching uneasily. They understand what revisionist rhetoric can unleash in a region already burdened by fragile borders and unresolved grievances. The Horn of Africa does not need another myth-based conflict — it needs cooperation.
Even the African Union, headquartered in Addis Ababa, faces quiet embarrassment. It cannot challenge its host state directly, yet it knows that this “Red Sea narrative” undermines the principles of sovereignty and regional peace that the AU was founded to defend.
Western governments, meanwhile, issue muted statements about “dialogue” and “regional stability.” Yet beneath diplomatic caution lies growing alarm: Abiy’s Ethiopia is drifting into delusion — and potential confrontation.
A Nation Drowning in Myths
Ethiopia’s tragedy is not just its political dysfunction — it is its war on truth itself. The Prosperity Party’s narrative about Assab is not about ports or history. It is about grip to power and distraction. By inventing an external enemy and promising a return to lost glory, Abiy Ahmed seeks to mask the corrosion of his own rule.
The irony is that this grand illusion comes at a time when the country can least afford it. The Tigray war has left unhealed wounds. Oromia is restless. Amhara is in revolt. Inflation and repression suffocate daily life. And yet, instead of addressing these crises, the government is drafting new myths — history as escapism.
It is the oldest trick of authoritarian politics: when legitimacy crumbles at home, find an enemy abroad. But Ethiopia’s salvation will not come from the sea; it will come from the truth.
Reclaiming Truth, Not Territory
The Prosperity Party’s obsession with Assab reveals a deeper sickness — the belief that control over narratives equals control over destiny. Abiy Ahmed’s government has blurred the line between myth and policy, between storytelling and statehood.
History, however, is unkind to such experiments. Leaders who chase immortality through myth often end up consumed by it. The Prime Minister who once promised reform and unity now presides over a nation fractured by fear and fantasy.
If Ethiopia truly seeks renewal, it must begin not by reclaiming ports, but by reclaiming truth — the foundation of any functioning state.
Because in the end, the real loss is not Assab.
It is reality itself.