Eritrea-Ethiopia

This entry reconstructs the border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia through a diachronic reading. It illustrates the major cause of dispute, and addresses the physical and topographical features of the disputed areas against the backdrop of the political development and the local cultural understandings of the borders. The 1998-2000 Ethiopian-Eritrean war traced back to the delimitation and subsequent lack of demarcation on the common border between the late XIX century and the early XX century due to the role played by the Italian colonial power. Then the frontier phenomenology has been transformed in key with the changes of the balance of power and of sovereign rights over the Eritrean territory and this boundary acquired a symbolic role in the process of constructing the Eritrean national identity. Neither the UN Security Council Resolutions, nor the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission’s ruling settled the delimitation and demarcation issues.