Ethiopia: Ethiopia-Eritrea Tensions Over Red Sea Port Have Turned the Tigray Peace Deal Into a Political Weapon

What the report says

In an analysis published by The Conversation Africa and carried by AllAfrica, Ethiopia’s unresolved tensions with Eritrea over Red Sea access are described as complicating the 2022 Pretoria Agreement that ended the war between the Ethiopian federal government and Tigrayan forces. The piece says the deal required Tigrayan disarmament, withdrawal of non-federal forces and the restoration of constitutional order in Tigray, but that implementation has remained partial.

According to the report, the agreement has survived formally, yet key issues remain unsettled: Western Tigray has not been returned to Tigrayan administration, foreign and other non-federal forces have not fully left, and Tigray has not been fully brought back into federal politics. The article argues that these gaps have been folded into broader political disputes in Ethiopia, especially as Addis Ababa seeks access to the Red Sea and disputes surrounding the Eritrean port of Assab.

The analysis says the federal government, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and Eritrea each have reasons to prefer an incomplete peace process over full implementation. It describes Ethiopia’s rhetoric on sea access as a sovereignty issue, while noting that Eritrea views any claim on Assab as a challenge to its territorial independence. The article also notes allegations in federal statements of possible TPLF-Eritrea coordination, which the TPLF denies.

More broadly, the report suggests that the Pretoria framework has become a political tool in competing narratives about security, territory and national unity. It presents the Tigray settlement as still central to Ethiopia’s stability, even as regional rivalries keep its core provisions on hold.