07/03/2026
A Few Facts about the 1993 Transit and Port Services Agreement Between & ,
In his recent address to Ethiopia’s House of Representatives, PM Abiy conveniently glosses over the port use agreement between and and Eritrea’s alleged unwillingness on mutual agreement.
The fact is Eritrea, never denied Ethiopia access to its ports. Quite the opposite: the two nations signed the Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation in July 1993, followed by the Transit and Port Services Agreement in September 1993.
Gebremichael Mengistu, has provided a summarized yet incisive breakdown of the truth about the transit and port service agreement in an article he wrote for dahai in 1998. We present the key points from his article:
- This agreement granted Ethiopia full and unrestricted use of the ports of Assab and Massawa. It provided for the free movement of goods to and from Ethiopia, exempted from Eritrean taxes and customs duties, and permitted payments in Ethiopian currency (Birr).
- Ethiopian Maritime and Transit Services Enterprises (MTSE), Ethiopian Customs Authority and Ethiopian Shipping Lines (ESL) had branch offices in Assab. ESL, in addition to a branch office “for the day to day follow up of activities,” also maintained warehouses “for the keeping up of dunnage and used spare parts” at the port of Assab.
- There were joint ministerial commissions established from the two countries to oversee the implementation of the cooperation agreements and to periodically review the agreements.
- Cargo handling destined to or originating from Ethiopia was the joint responsibility of MTSE and the Eritrean Shipping and Transit Agency Services (ERSTAS). Hence, MTSE was represented in the daily operational planning staff meeting. Moreover, Customs inspection of all goods in transit was carried out in Assab by Ethiopian Customs Authority.
- Eritrea, although a sovereign state, and notwithstanding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) and the UN Convention on Registration of Ships (1986) allowed Ethiopian ships to make Assab their home port and to continue to register in the port of Assab and sail under the Ethiopian flag.
- In some ways, the transit and port services agreement that prevailed between 1991-1998 favored Ethiopia. For instance, normally the dwelling time for transit goods should rarely exceed 30 days. For instance, between 1991-1998, in the ports of Djibouti, Mombassa and Dar Es Salaam, the grace period for transit cargoes was 60 days, 15 days and 15 days respectively, whereas, in the ports of Assab and Massawa it was 180 days. At the port of Massawa, transit cargoes were processed within three to four days and transported to the border.
- Ethiopian officials were also very content and happy with the quality of services that they were getting from Eritrean ports. For instance, speaking to the Amharic edition of the Ethiopian reporter (December 1990 E.C. or December 1997) the General Manager of the Ethiopian Maritime and Transit Services Enterprises MTSE said, “We are getting all the services that we would have gotten if we had our own port. This makes us happy.”
Eritrea was also benefiting from Ethiopia’s use of its ports. The economic benefits that it was gaining should not be exaggerated. Records show that the total revenue that Eritrea collected from transit cargoes in port dues and fees and transit fees in the seven years before the 1998 conflict was always under Birr 200 million per year.
Compare this to the amount that Ethiopia is paying to Djibouti annually after that—closer to $ 2 billion dollars per Ethiopia’s own admission.
The historical record also shows that during the approximately 40 years of its exclusive use (1952–1991), Ethiopia made no substantial investment in port infrastructure at Assab or Massawa, primarily utilizing them as transit and military ports.
Via Bekit Drar
NationalEr Interest MOI Eritrea IGAD Secretariat DW Africa African Union CNN Africa EU Delegation to the African Union DW Amharic Abiy Ahmed Ali Oromo Liberation Front-OLF/ABO
