How a single disputed town sparked a twenty-year standoff

Wars & Conflicts · Published 17 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The border between Eritrea and Ethiopia is more than a line on a map; it is a scar of colonial treaties and linguistic loopholes. A 1998 skirmish over a small town transformed into a two-decade proxy war, fueled by a century of competing claims over the Red Sea coast.

The roots of the conflict lie in the late 19th century. In 1884, the British Empire signed the Hewett Treaty with Ethiopia, promising highlands to the British in exchange for help during the Mahdist War. By 1889, Italy occupied these highlands, establishing the colony of "Eritrea." However, the 1889 Treaty of Wuchale became a primary source of friction. The Italian version claimed Ethiopia was a protectorate, while the Amharic version granted Ethiopia significant autonomy. This discrepancy eventually led to the First Italo-Ethiopian War and the 1896 Treaty of Addis Ababa, where Italy paid reparations but retained much of the territory.

Following World War II, the status of Eritrea remained contested. In 1952, the United Nations decided Eritrea would become part of the Ethiopian Empire as a special autonomous region. This sparked a thirty-year armed struggle for independence, led by groups like the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF). After a 1993 referendum where 99.81% voted for independence, the two nations became sovereign but left their border undefined.

The modern standoff began on May 6, 1998, when border clashes erupted in the town of Badme. While a 2005 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration concluded that Eritrea triggered the war by invading Ethiopia, the two nations remained deadlocked on the specifics of the ruling. By May 2000, Ethiopia occupied about a quarter of Eritrean territory. Despite a 2000 Algiers peace agreement and the establishment of a 25-kilometre-wide demilitarised zone, tensions persisted until a 2018 summit finally demarcated the border and resumed diplomatic relations.

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