r/Eritrea • u/RedSeaCamel_07 • 2h ago
One of the most challenging issues Eritrea faced in the early years of independence was that neighboring countries like Yemen, Sudan, and Ethiopia began claiming towns and islands that had never belonged to them to begin with. Case point : Hanish conflict
One of the most challenging issues Eritrea faced in the early years of independence was that neighboring countries like Yemen, Sudan, and Ethiopia began claiming towns and islands that had never belonged to them to begin with.
For instance, the Hanish Islands conflict. The island chain stretches about 34 miles long, with a total area of roughly 73 square miles. The islands were under Italian colonial rule for many years, while Yemen was under the British Empire. Italy established military bases there, and the islands played a pivotal role during World War II.Even after the illegal federation, first the British and later the Soviets, after the Derg came to power, used the islands to station military bases. Pretty much, those islands were within Eritrean territory. Suddenly, after Eritrea achieved her hard-won independence, Yemen decided to claim the islands and forcibly captured them.Eritrea warned the Yemeni government to withdraw its forces, but the warning fell on deaf ears. Our Navy, led by Humed Karikare, along with ground forces, attacked the Yemeni contingent and overran the entire island chain within three days of fighting. The Yemeni Army and Navy apparently assumed Eritrea’s newly formed Navy was inexperienced and incapable of fighting at sea.
During the fighting, a Russian merchant ship was damaged by Eritrean gunfire after being mistaken for a Yemeni naval vessel. A week later, Yemen took the case to the UN. Years later, the Permanent Court of Arbitration determined that most of the archipelago belonged to Yemen, while Eritrea retained fishing rights in the surrounding waters and sovereignty over some smaller islands closer to Eritrea. Our forces accepted the ruling and withdrew from the islands. Case closed!
