By Miwodew Muluye
Addis Ababa ( AMECO)- Securing direct access to the Red Sea is essential for Ethiopia’s security, economic survival, and regional stability, a lead researcher on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has said.
Speaking at a forum organised by the Addis Ababa Leadership Academy, Solomon Tefera outlined how historical foreign encirclement—primarily driven by Egyptian strategies to isolate the nation—deprived landlocked Ethiopia of its coastlines, and called for a coordinated national strategy to restore maritime access.
Solomon stated that Cairo historically employed three main tactics to weaken Ethiopia’s geopolitical standing: restricting international aid and infrastructure financing along the Nile, destabilising the country by supporting external forces and buffer entities, and maintaining persistent military threats.
While international aid restrictions historically blocked major water infrastructure under Emperor Haile Selassie I, Solomon noted that Ethiopia eventually broke this constraint through self-funding initiatives, most notably the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Tracing centuries of diplomacy and conflict, Solomon highlighted how successive monarchs prioritised Red Sea access. Emperor Tewodros II campaigned towards Massawa to expel Ottoman and Egyptian forces, while Emperor Yohannes IV sought European diplomatic support against coastal blockades. Emperor Menelik II balanced colonial dynamics to preserve regional transit routes, and Haile Selassie leveraged international diplomacy at the United Nations following the second world war, culminating in the 1950 UN-backed federation with Eritrea.
The UN resolution federating Eritrea with Ethiopia was based on historical ties, the economic necessity of maritime access, and the premise that isolating Ethiopia posed long-term security risks to the region.
Drawing parallels to modern trade routes through Djibouti, Solomon concluded that regional economic integration and security remain deeply intertwined, making reliable Red Sea access a vital condition for long-term peace in the Horn of Africa.