A group of individuals calling themselves “Red Sea Task Force” published an 81-page document titled Eritrean Sovereignty and Ethiopia’s Quest for Sea Access on March 24, 2025.
The document has been widely circulated on online media platforms. A summary of the document has been translated into English, Arabic, Tigrinya, and Amharic.
These so-called “independent” thinkers, who refer to themselves as “guardian fathers of Red Sea” based their analysis on a speech delivered by Ethiopian Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed to his parliament on October 23, 2023, regarding the Red Sea.
This report raises concerns that the Prime Minister’s statements, particularly regarding access to the Red Sea, may not align with international laws and could jeopardize good neighborly relations and regional stability in the horn region.
However, the document overlooks Asmara’s more than 30-year history of so-called “good” neighborly relations.
The PFDJ government in Asmara has been engaged in conflicts with its neighbors such as Yemen, Djibouti and Ethiopia.
The report’s authors refrain from addressing the Eritrean regime’s involvement in unsettling the region through its interference in the Horn countries, spanning from Port Sudan to Mogadishu.
Yet they attempt to portray Dr. Abiy’s parliamentary speech as a “reckless provocation.”
Members of the “Red Sea Task Force,” who claim to be independent scholars, but most of them were former EPLF fighters and few names still listed on PFDJ payroll, discuss the history, geography, demography, maritime law, and economic aspects of the Red Sea. However, they fail to consider the perspective of the Red Sea Afar people, who have lived along the coast for generations.
Among the nine contributors to the report, none engaged with an Afar scholar, except for one instance where a certain based in London allegedly spoke to an Afar expert. Furthermore, they did not dare to include studies conducted by Afar researchers in the bibliography part of their report.
Another questionable claim in the report is the suggestion that the Red Sea Afars’ wish to reunite with Ethiopia stems from a mistaken notion of reconnecting with the majority of Afars residing in Ethiopia. This is a baseless and fabricated claim designed to provoke controversy.
The Red Sea Afar people’s fight is to shape their own future as well as preventing chauvinist Tigrinya speakers from dictating their destiny. Rather, integration into a nation where Afars form the numerical majority has never been a cause for their struggle. Instead, their primary concern is securing their democratic and human rights within Eritrea.
The so-called “Red Sea Task Force” have simply repackaged Issayas’s typical threat, under the guise of a neutral researcher, claiming that Djibouti will face similar problem because Ethiopia aims to exploit the “Ethnic Afar Card” to advance its interests in neighboring countries where Afars reside across borders.
Certainly, the Afar people’s success in obtaining their democratic rights would thrust chauvinist Tigrinya speakers into a troubling fantasy, as it serves as a stepping stone toward reunification with Ethiopia via a popular referendum.
Even if these so-called independent researchers cannot support the fierce struggle of the Red Sea Afar people to avert the existential threat imposed on them and to determine their own fate, they would not need the cloak of research to align with the chauvinist Tigrinya speakers who aim to eradicate the Afar people from the face of the earth and control the Red Sea coast.
Ultimately, this group is not engaged in a genuine scholarly discussion but rather an ideological defense of the Eritrean regime.
Their report is an attempt to silence the voices of the Red Sea Afar people, who have been marginalized for decades.
The real issue the “Red Sea Task force” attempted to repress is not Ethiopia’s interest to sea access, but rather the democratic and human rights of the people living along the Red Sea coast.
Despite Asmara’s repression and intellectual gymnastics of its defenders, the fundamental question remains: Why should the Red Sea Afar people be denied a democratic process to determine their own fate? The answer is clear—because Asmara knows that a free and fair decision would not be in third favor.
This is why they, along with their so-called “experts,” are working so hard to silence the Afar’s quest for self determination and dismiss it as an “imperial ambition” of Ethiopia rather than what it truly is—a legitimate demand for justice, democracy, and regional stability.
This task force, in its “concluding remarks” that reeks of “Shabian Shabian,” threatens that Ethiopia’s demand for a sea outlet will be weighed against its benefits and harms, and says that the solution lies in a give-and-take agreement where Ethiopia can benefit from a sea port for transportation services in accordance with maritime law. Indeed, the task force’s agitation is not because they have realized after 30 years that Ethiopia needs sea port services, but rather because they understand that the fire ignited by their “soul father,” Shabiya, will not merely wound the system as before and be reversed, but will uproot it entirely.
The intellectual effort in the final hour to save the system could be considered a last resort.
However, neither the authoritarian regime in Asmara nor the intellectual squabbles of its supporters can hinder the struggle of the Red Sea Afar people to uphold their democratic and human rights.
It is certain that the Afar people of the Red Sea Coast will secure their democratic rights to self-determination, and this caution stands inescapable for both the dictator and his intellectual supporters.
Author: Red Sea Afar Peace and Democratic FORUM
The views expressed in this opinion article do not necessarily align with the editorial position or values of The East African Daily
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