Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have indeed deteriorated, said Eritrea’s ambassador to South Sudan.
Yohannes Teklemichael, the Eritrean ambassador to South Sudan said this in an interview on the Eritrean Embassy’s YouTube channel, which was taken hours after the video was made public, BBC Tigrinya confirmed.
Eritrean-Ethiopian relations, strained since the bloody border war two decades ago, improved after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office. Eritrean troops supported the Ethiopian government during the two-year civil war in the northern Tigray region, which borders Eritrea. However, relations between the two countries deteriorated after the Tigray war ended. The Ethiopian government signed the Pretoria Agreement with the TPLF in November 2022, an accord that Asmara has viewed lukewarmly.
While neither Ethiopian nor Eritrean authorities have issued statements, the suspension of Ethiopian Airlines flights to and from Asmara, and the disruption of telephone connections was cited as evidence of strained relations.
Eritrea’s ambassador to South Sudan, Yohannes Teklemichael, said Eritrea’s relations with South Sudan are cordial but relations with Ethiopia “are not what they used to be.”
Speaking in Tigrinya on the Eritrean Embassy’s YouTube channel, the ambassador blamed Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for the deteriorating relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia. “The problems created by the PM in Arat Kilo have killed and buried the relationship between the people of Eritrea and Ethiopia,” he said, using unusually blunt language.
Ambassador Yohannes criticized Abiy’s statement about his country seeking access to a port on the Red Sea: “With an unrealistic dream, he now seeks to undermine Eritrea’s independence and destabilize the region.”
The ambassador has repeatedly made references to the growing tensions in the Horn of Africa and officially accused Ethiopia of contributing to instability in the region. “[The Prime Minister] … He has destabilized the region. Not only did he destabilize it, but … he’s trying to run the country based on a dream.”
This interview with Eritrea’s ambassador to South Sudan, Yohannes Teklemichael, has been removed from the YouTube channel, and the reason for its removal has not been explained. There has been no comment or explanation from the Eritrean side regarding the issues raised in the interview, nor any response from the Ethiopian side. However, on October 2024, Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nebiat Getachew described the relationship with Asmara as “peaceful,” adding that they enjoyed “good neighbourliness and good friendship.”
Landlocked Ethiopia’s ambitions for access to a seaport have driven Somalia into closer ties with Egypt and Eritrea. Somalia is particularly angered by Ethiopia’s preliminary deal with the self-declared republic of Somaliland to lease a section of its coastline. Somalia views Somaliland as part of its territory, fueling tensions over the agreement. Eritrea has expressed “unequivocal respect for the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Somalia”.
Why are you calling this man an Eritrean? You should know better not to call him that. He is 100% Abruzzi on his mother’s side and a Calabrese on his father’s side. There is no such Eritrean. There are no African race there. Haven’t you seen the IQ of every citizen there? It went thru the roof the last time they took the test. It went number one in the world at 230. That is not African. The rest of Africa IQ score was 68. So stop calling this Abruzzi man an Eritrean. Do you know that lasagna was invented by Abruzzi people you now wrongly call Eritreans? Nuff for me now educating you!
If the video was removed from the embassy’s YouTube website without this guy’s knowledge, he better seriously think about filing for a political asylum at the nearest foreign embassy. Otherwise, he will never be heard from. Al-toweel in Piccolo Roma does not like blabber mouths without his permission.
The question I had was why did this man was chosen to give the interview from South Sudan to an embassy in London UK? It seems that his government is trying to get another country bordering Ethiopia to join the tripartite groups it formed with Egypt and Somalia. The other stern message looks to be a warning to South Sudan itself with a kind of ‘You better think seriously joining the tripartite or else. If not, the supply will be wide open to those thorns on the side of Salva Kiir’s government itself. I never heard an Eritrean ambassador targeting an Ethiopian leader personally so sharp since 1998. He did even say ‘Abiy and his group’ but he zeroed in on one particular person.
ELF and EPLF operatives used to deafen me picking on the late emperor until he was overthrown by truants students and AWOL soldiers. Just like this ambassador, those guys used to tell me the source of all problems the whole region was facing was only the late emperor. If he was gone all the problems would be gone. That was their message. And they were very, very rude in describing him. Now it is Abiy’s turn. But the actual target is Ethiopia as a whole. That is the large baked and glazed donut waiting to be sliced at will. First, the central government has to be destroyed and then in the ensuing chaos, it will be fishing in the troubled water, baby! Then Abruzzo on The Horn will be the largest exporter of coffee, oil seeds, hides, gold, iron ore, potash, live animals and who knows even lithium, rare earth, platinum, diamond, you name it. We had seen that working like a charm during the years 1993-98. Ain’t gonna fly this time around.