In 1890 Italy annexed Eritrea as its colony (it was the first Italian colony in Africa), and remained in the region until 1941, when during the Second World War Italy lost its occupied territories to the Allied forces. Then Britain took over, and Eritrea was under British domination until 1952. After that, Eritrea became a federated state of Ethiopia, but Emperor Haile Salassie kept reducing Eritrean autonomy until the country became just another region of Ethiopia. As a reaction, in the early 60s different Eritrean groups began the fight for their independence.
The conflict (with all kinds of struggles, battles and thousands of displaced people) lasted until 1991, the year in which a referendum was held in Eritrea, whose result was, in 1993, the proclamation of its independence. However, the territorial boundaries between the two states remained to be clarified, and disagreements over border control resulted in a warlike conflict in 1998.
In 2000, Ethiopia managed to occupy a quarter of the disputed territories, which led to the surrender of the Eritrean army and the signing of a peace treaty in Algiers, mediated by the UN. This agreement established the sovereignty of the disputed territories. Ethiopia, although initially agreed with the treaty, was not willing to cede the Badme region, and consequently the conflicts continued in this area after the peace agreement.
The two countries remained isolated from each other, with borders closed and the impossibility of anyone moving between them. Families with members on both sides of the border had no way of visiting, and not even communicating with each other. The Ethiopian episcopal conference, which covers Ethiopia and Eritrea, had to meet in Rome!
This painful situation ended last year, 2018, at the initiative of the current Ethiopian President, Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali, who decided to meet with his Eritrean counterpart to sign a document declaring the end of the state of war, and to make the Algiers peace agreement effective.
This achievement is the main reason why Abiy Ahmed Ali has been honored with the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, which was announced on October 11. The prize was proudly received by millions of Ethiopians, who thus saw their president give a new voice to the world, a voice of a proud but also a peaceful people, who decidedly chose peace instead of war.
Much remains to be done, of course, but it is obvious to many that Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali has opened doors, and more importantly, has awakened hope among Ethiopians that things can really change and that they can enjoy, in a future, perhaps not too distant, a more united world in which borders are open bridges and not walls of separation.
