The Virtual Demarcation of the Boundary
PART 3: PUBLISHED 24 APRIL 2018
(Part 3: PDF version )
Ambassador Andeberhan Welde Ghergis

The Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) delivered its decision on the delimitation of the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia on 13 April 2002.[14] Eritrea’s claim line generally corresponded with the historical colonial treaty border. On the other hand, Ethiopia’s claim line incorporated extensive tracts of territory on the Eritrean side of that border: the ‘Yirga Triangle’ in the Mereb-Setit section of the Western Sector, the ‘Belesa Projection’ and the ‘Endeli Projection’ in the Mereb-Belesa-Muna line in the Central Sector, and the Bada and Bure areas in the Eastern Sector. Clearly, Ethiopia claimed large areas that did not belong to it as a bargaining chip and ended up gaining about half of its claims at Eritrea’s expense. 

Map 6 shows the new international boundary between the State of Eritrea and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, with the heavily shaded areas indicating the territorial effect of the delimitation decision of the Boundary Commission on the historical colonial treaty border. The decision of the Boundary Commission effectively modified the historical colonial treaty border between the two states in favour of Ethiopia. The map depicts that the delimitation decision of the Boundary Commission, as an arbitral determination of the boundary, essentially ceded to Ethiopia the red-shaded strips of land in the Western, Central, and Eastern sectors that the colonial treaties of 1900, 1902, and 1908 had placed in Eritrean territory.

Predictably, there was a marked contrast in the immediate public reaction of the two states to the eagerly awaited announcement of the Boundary Commission’s Delimitation Decision on 13 April 2002. In a swift response, the Ethiopian government declared victory and the state media in Addis Ababa exuded a celebratory mood. The Eritrean government issued no official statement on that notable day; the state media merely broke the news and, in a display of uncertainty as to the territorial significance of the ruling, the country’s television station kept on flashing the new delimitation line in the different sectors of the border without comment.

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