ASMARA, Eritrea (ESAN TV) — Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki used his address marking the country’s 34th Independence Anniversary to sharply criticize past policies and current alleged issues impacting his country’s relations with neighboring Ethiopia.
Speaking in Asmara on May 24, 2025, President Afwerki described a history of crises in Ethiopia and accused external forces of undermining recent developments. The President stated that the “spiral of crises and devastation” in Ethiopia over eighty years has been “inculcated” by what he called misguided policies, specifically mentioning those “enunciated by Washington’s Fosters (Foster Dulles and his ilk)” and also attributing “grave mistakes” to leaders of the former Soviet Union during the Cold War. He asserted that this history denied Ethiopia the opportunity of nation-building for two generations. Following the Cold War, Ethiopia gravitated towards ethnic polarization instead of building a nation anchored on citizenship, leading to upheavals and devastation. The President also referred to “several and repeated disasters unleashed by Ethnic Federalism”.
Afwerki recalled a period of “euphoria and optimism” seven years prior, engendered by a presumed “reform” in Ethiopia, which also brought promising prospects for Eritrea and other neighboring countries. However, he claimed that “external forces who were perturbed by the promising prospects were not idle”.
According to the President, these external forces have declared “wars against the Ethiopian people” under the rubric of “Prosperity (their new surrogate)” in recent years, describing this as illustrative of their desperation. He listed several alleged pretexts or banners used for these declared wars, including the “Issue of Water,” “Nile and the Red Sea,” “Access to the Sea,” the “Ideology of Orommuma” (which he stated does not represent the Oromo people), the conundrum of a “Cushitic-Semitic antagonism,” “Instrumentalizing the people and land of Afar as a ruse and convenient platform,” and “stoking ethnic wars all over”.
Afwerki further claimed that a “purchasing spree” has been set in motion to acquire weapons and “technology” to unleash these wars, accompanied by “bravado and military brinkmanship”. He alleged that “limitless” dollars have been “squandered to enlist the collaboration of traitors and turn-coats”. He also mentioned the deployment of “psychological warfare” as a “third pillar” to spread what he called abject lies, suppress truth, and foment hatred and grievances.
In his conclusion regarding the situation, President Afwerki stated that the optimistic prospects that were anticipated have now dissipated. He asserted that the Ethiopian people “have already made their choice” and are “buckling up to strengthen their opposition”. The President conveyed that the people and Government of Eritrea “do not regret the unreserved support that they vigorously extended with high hopes to the presumed Rectification/Reform because of the sudden turn of events”. He called on the external forces he claimed are involved in concocting subversion to “fold their hands/tentacles”. He also urged what he termed the “few collaborators and vacillating elements” to “stay away from these transgressions.”
