We can not prevent Ethiopia’s Prosperity Party regime to dream. Dreams are harmless until they become other people’s problems. Eritrea is not obliged to realize someone else’s fantasies. So when that dream turns into loud snorts, angry mutterings, and reckless declarations about our coast, it is legitimate to ask: What has gone wrong in Ethiopia? Have its elites truly run out of issues to debate other than reclaiming Assab? Who are the elites who obsess over the sea while the country falls apart at home?
To answer these questions, let’s look at the following observations and facts.
On the Prosperity regime’s agenda
The actions and rhetoric coming from the Prosperity leadership are deliberate and dangerous. They represent an unholy, misguided effort to manufacture grievance and rally a restless public behind a revisionist national narrative.
- Rewriting a mythical past
The regime is pushing a narrative that portrays Ethiopia’s (1962-1991) occupation of Eritrea’s ports and its entire coast as a lost golden age that must be reclaimed. This misguided and selective nostalgia ignores the violence and suffering that accompanied Abyssinian expansion into Eritrea, and it sanitises history to generate a political grievance. Rewriting memory to suit political ends is both dishonest and dangerous trajectory to war and destabilisation of the region as witnessed in many part of the world. - Manufacturing anger to mask failure
The repeated drumbeat since October 2023 is designed to inflame public feeling — to make the populace angry, then offer the absence of a sea as the explanation for all the country’s ills. This emotional engineering replaces sober political accountability with a simplistic victim-hood narrative that has no legal or historical basis. - Scapegoating instead of introspection
Eritrea did not cause Ethiopia’s landlocked status. If responsibility is to be assigned, it lies with those Ethiopian regimes and decisions that failed to secure peaceful and mutually beneficial arrangements with neighbouring port states. Rather than looking outward and blaming others, Ethiopia’s leaders should examine the choices made at home that undermined regional cooperation.
What Eritrea is doing — and will continue to do
Eritrea’s response is measured, comprehensive, and consistent with its sovereign responsibilities. We will not be drawn into shameful quarrels or theatrical provocations. Our response combines diplomacy, law, public engagement, and the firm defense of our national sovereignty.
- Reinforce diplomacy and international outreach.
We will intensify engagement with regional and global institutions, and with partner states bordering the Red Sea, to underscore the illegitimacy of hostile rhetoric that threatens regional stability. Eritrean diplomats and civil society must work to expose propaganda that violates our sovereignty and territorial integrity. - Present the legal and historical record.
We will continue to document and publicize the legal instruments, historical agreements, and archival records that establish Eritrea’s sovereignty and maritime rights. Public diplomacy does not mean shouting the loudest; it means presenting the facts clearly, authoritatively, and persistently in international fora. - Champion peace and stability.
Eritrea remains committed to regional peace and stability. We will press for peaceful, lawful solutions and encourage responsible leadership in Addis Ababa to pursue cooperation rather than confrontation. Stability benefits all coastal and landlocked states alike; it is in no one’s interest to let rhetoric become policy. - Exercise strategic restraint — without weakness.
We will not indulge in petty exchanges or be provoked into degrading disputes. Yet restraint is not passivity. We will defend our dignity while refusing to amplify the provocateurs platform. Patience and prudence are our default posture — but not to be mistaken for complacency. - Strengthen national defense intelligently.
Eritrea will continue to maintain and refine a defense posture that neutralises boastful superiority and nullifies advantages based solely on numbers or hardware. Our military doctrine has historically emphasised strategy, resolve, and the protection of our people and sovereignty. We will keep improving those capabilities to deter aggression and preserve peace.
Conclusion
The Prosperity regime’s campaign of grievance-mongering and historical revisionism threatens to inflame a fragile region. Eritrea will continue to defend its sovereignty through diplomacy, law, public information, and prudent defense preparedness. We call on responsible actors — inside Ethiopia and across the world — to reject inflammatory rhetoric, to seek facts over myths, and to pursue durable solutions that respect the territorial integrity and dignity of every nation.
by ER MEDIA translated from Tigrigna Editorial