No resolution: The Ethiopia-Eritrea war of 1998 to 2000 in perspective - Africa Today Seminar

Martin Plaut was born in South Africa and studied at the Universities of Cape Town, the Witwatersrand and Warwick, UK. He is currently Africa Editor of BBC World Service News and is a regular contributor to the Review of African Political Economy. He co-authored Power: Black workers, their unions and the struggle for freedom in South Africa (London: Spokesman, 1984) and has just co-edited Unfinished business: Ethiopia and Eritrea at war, with Dominique Jacquin-Berdal.

On 12 December 2000 an agreement was signed in Algiers to end the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The peace agreement allowed for the establishment of a number of independent commissions to demarcate the border, examine financial claims and investigate the causes of the war. Initial optimism that the huge diplomatic effort and the massive loss of life had finally persuaded both sides to put the past behind them was dashed when the two countries began to build up their forces again. The result of two and a half years of fighting can therefore be summarized as follows. The border between the two countries was left more or less unaltered. By late 2003, the border had been decided upon but remained unmarked. It was sealed and all cross-border trade had ceased. An estimated 100,000 people had lost their lives and many more had been wounded. At least 75,000 Eritreans were expelled from Ethiopia and around 60,000 Ethiopians had gone in the opposite direction. The political elites of both countries had been deeply divided and the diasporas of both countries, upon which each had relied, had become disenchanted and divided. The development programmes of two of the poorest countries on earth were put back by a generation, just as a major drought struck. The goodwill of the international community towards both countries had been squandered. What began as a minor skirmish had transformed the prospects of Eritrea beyond recognition and proved to be a substantial setback to Ethiopian prospects for development.