The Eritrean–Ethiopian War, also known as the Badme War, was a major armed conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea that took place from May 6, 1998 to June 18, 2000.
After Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, relations were initially friendly. However, disagreements about where the newly created international border should be caused relations to deteriorate significantly, eventually leading to full-scale war. The conflict was the biggest war in the world at the time, with over 500,000 troops partaking in the fighting on both sides.
Eritrea and Ethiopia both invested heavily in armaments prior to the war, and reportedly suffered between 70,000 and 300,000 deaths combined throughout the conflict as a result, with a further 600,000 people displaced. The conflict ultimately led to minor border changes through final binding border delimitation overseen by the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The war officially came to an end with the signing of the Algiers Agreement on 12 December 2000; however, the ensuing border conflict would continue on for nearly two decades.
In 2005, the Eritrea–Ethiopia Boundary Commission, a body established by the Algiers Agreement, concluded that Badme, the disputed territory at the heart of the conflict, belongs to Eritrea. On 5 June 2018, the ruling coalition of Ethiopia, headed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, agreed to fully implement the peace treaty signed with Eritrea in 2000, with peace declared by both parties in July 2018, twenty years after the initial confrontation.
Background
From 1961 until 1991, Eritrea fought a 30-year war of independence against Ethiopia; during this period, the Ethiopian Civil War also began on 12 September 1974, when the Derg staged a coup d'état against Emperor Haile Selassie. Both conflicts lasted until 1991 when the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) – a coalition of rebel groups led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) – overthrew the Derg government, and installed a transitional government in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. During the civil war, the groups fighting the Derg government had a common enemy, so the TPLF allied itself with the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF).
In 1991, as part of the United Nations-facilitated transition of power, it was agreed that the EPLF should set up an autonomous transitional government in Eritrea and organize a referendum. This referendum was held in April 1993, and the vote was overwhelmingly in favour of independence, leading to the establishment of a new state joining the United Nations. Also in 1991, the transitional government of Eritrea and the TPLF-led transitional government of Ethiopia agreed to set up a commission, to look into any problems that arose between the two former wartime allies over the foreseen independence of Eritrea. This commission was not successful, and during the following years relations between the governments of the two sovereign states deteriorated. Eritrea soon began a practice of forcibly expelling Ethiopians from its territory. As early as 1991, about 30,000 wives and children of Ethiopian soldiers stationed in Eritrea were bused by Eritrean forces across the border, and crowded into camps in Adigrat, Adwa and Axum, with the EPLF telling relief officials to expect 150,000 more Ethiopian civilians. Reportedly, many of the deportees were people who were being dismissed from their jobs, some of them longtime residents of Eritrea.
Determining the border between the two states also became a major source of conflict. In November 1997, a committee was set up to try to resolve it. Before Eritrean independence, the border had been of minor importance, as it was only a demarcation line between federated provinces, and initially, the two governments tacitly agreed that the border should remain as it had been immediately before independence. Upon independence, however, the border became an international frontier, and the two governments could not agree on where, specifically, the border should be demarcated; they looked back to colonial-era treaties between the Italian Empire and Ethiopia as a basis for the precise boundaries between the states. Problems then arose, because they could not agree on the interpretation of those agreements and treaties, and it was not clear, under international law, how binding colonial treaties were on the two states.
Economic tensions (1993 – 1997)
Economic tensions between the two countries had been growing since Eritrean independence. Despite sharing a currency union using the Ethiopian Birr, Eritrea ran exchange bureaux offering rates for hard currencies substantially higher than those inside Ethiopia, violating the terms of the currency union. Eritrean traders, reportedly with tacit government approval, also abused transit trade agreements to divert goods onto the Ethiopian market for profit. Eritrea was also accused of smuggling Ethiopian coffee, oilseeds and other agricultural products, effectively becoming a significant coffee exporter despite producing none domestically.
Tensions escalated further over the Assab oil refinery. Eritrea demanded Ethiopia increase its share of the refinery's output from 30% to 40%, and pay an additional 56 million Birr in hard currency for modernisation costs. Ethiopia rejected these terms and began importing refined petroleum from elsewhere, diversifying its routes through Djibouti and Mombasa. By August 1997 the refinery had closed, forcing Eritrea to spend scarce hard currency on its own fuel imports.
The trade relationship between the two countries was heavily unbalanced. Eritrea exported more than 65% of its products to Ethiopia, while only 9% of Ethiopian exports went to Eritrea, leaving Eritrea deeply dependent on Ethiopian markets and food supplies. When Eritrea introduced its own currency, the Nakfa, in November 1997 and proposed it be treated as equivalent to the Ethiopian Birr in bilateral trade, Ethiopia rejected the proposal and insisted all trade be conducted in hard currency. The breakdown of commercial relations that followed hit Eritrea particularly hard given this dependency.
Escalation in tensions (1997 – May 1998)
Tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea had been simmering well before the outbreak of war. Prior to full-scale conflict, there were already brief border clashes involving exchanges of fire. In the disputed areas of Bure and Bada, Ethiopian forces reportedly burned villages and expelled Eritrean administrators. In the view of the Eritrean government, the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF)-dominated administration in Addis Ababa appeared to be engaging in territorial encroachment and attempting to redraw the map.
The first major incident leading to the war came during July 1997, when over 1,000 Ethiopian troops occupied the border village of Bada (also referred to as Ari Murug region) in eastern Eritrea. The Ethiopians dismantled the civilian administration there, resulting in diplomatic protests from the Eritreans to the Ethiopian government. Tensions escalated further in October of that year when the Ethiopian government published a new map of Tigray Region that incorporated large parts of Eritrean territory. The map reinforced fears within the Eritrean government that conceding any territory could set a precedent for further Ethiopian claims along the border.
Relations deteriorated sharply in November 1997 after Eritrea introduced its own currency (the nakfa), triggering a trade war. In late December, a brief military confrontation occurred at an Eritrean border post in northern Dankalia. Shortly afterward, several thousand Eritreans residing in western Tigray were ordered to adopt Ethiopian nationality or leave the area.
Forces involved
In 1998, prior to mobilization for war, Eritrea had an estimated 40,000 troops, while Ethiopia's military numbered around 120,000. Eritrea possessed 200 to 300 tanks—though not all were operational—compared to Ethiopia's 350 to 400. After the Derg’s fall the Ethiopian army was initially Tigrayan‑dominated, but wartime expansion soon drew in other ethnicities. Amhara officers from the Derg era were released from prison and re‑entered service, yet Tigrayans still held roughly 80% of senior posts. Eventually both Ethiopia and Eritrea each mobilized nearly 250,000 troops.
History
War
Outbreak of hostilities (May 1998)
After a series of armed incidents in which several Eritrean officials were killed near Badme, on 6 May 1998, a large Eritrean mechanized force entered the Badme region along the border of Eritrea and Ethiopia's northern Tigray Region, resulting in a firefight between the Eritrean soldiers and a Tigrayan militia and Ethiopian police they encountered. Accounts differ on who initiated the conflict. Eritrea claimed the war began with an unprovoked attack by Ethiopian forces on Eritrean positions, while Ethiopia accused Eritrea of invading and occupying disputed border areas.
Both sides began massing large numbers of troops and military equipment along the border. On 13 May 1998, the Ethiopian parliament declared war on Eritrea. What followed was characterized by observers as the most intense fighting in Africa since World War II. The clashes escalated with what was described as a "terrifying speed".
Early clashes and escalation (May–June 1998)
Heavy fighting erupted throughout May 1998, involving artillery, mortars, and small arms across the broad valley. The Ethiopian military launched attacks on 22, 23, 25, and 31 May, while Eritrean forces opened an offensive along the highway between Addis Ababa and Asmara at Zalambessa.
The start of June 1998 saw the onset of the rainy season and a brief lull in fighting. The normally dry riverbed of Badme region became flooded and severely impeded Eritrean military logistics. Around the same time, the Ethiopian Air Force launched airstrikes on Asmara’s airport, using bombs and napalm. Eritrean air defenses shot down one of the attacking jets, and the captured pilot was identified as Bezabeh Petros—a former prisoner of war from the War of Independence who had been repatriated after being shot down while serving in the Derg regime’s Air Force. His return to combat operations despite being returned angered the Eritreans. On 5 June 1998, the Eritrean Air Force bombed Ethiopia's Tigray region, targeting the capital Mekelle. A military airbase was targeted and hit, but cluster bombs accidentally struck civilians. Dozens of children and their parents were killed when an elementary school was bombed in Mekelle. These raids caused civilian casualties and deaths on both sides of the border. The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1177 condemning the use of force and welcomed statements from both sides to end the air strikes.
Stalemate and military buildup (Mid-1998 – February 1999)
Both countries spent several hundred million dollars on new military equipment. This was despite the peace mediation efforts by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and a US/Rwanda peace plan that was in the works. The US/Rwanda proposal was a four-point peace plan that called for withdrawal of both forces to pre-June 1998 positions. Eritrea refused and instead demanded the demilitarization of all disputed areas along the common border, to be overseen by a neutral monitoring force, and direct talks.
In 1999, the war entered a new phase as Ethiopia had fully mobilized its reserves and replenished its arsenal. Eritrea also called up its reserves—one-fifth of whom were women—but relied primarily on weapons it had captured years prior during the war of independence.
Ethiopian military operations routinely bogged down due to poor logistics.
Operation Sunset (February 1999)
With Eritrea's refusal to accept the US/Rwanda peace plan, on 22 February 1999, Ethiopia launched a massive military offensive to recapture Badme. Tension had been high since 6 February 1999, when Ethiopia claimed that Eritrea had violated the moratorium on air raids by bombing Adigrat, a claim it later withdrew. Surveying the extensive trenches the Eritreans had constructed, Ethiopian General Samora Yunis observed, "The Eritreans are good at digging trenches and we are good at converting trenches into graves. They, too, know this. We know each other very well".
Ethiopia's offensive, codenamed Operation Sunset, began with an air attack on Assab airport by four Ethiopian fighter jets, followed by a massive artillery barrage against Eritrean positions on the Tsorona front, which was meant as a diversion to make the Eritreans prepare for an Ethiopian offensive against eastern or southern Eritrea. The following day, the Ethiopian ground attack began. Three Ethiopian divisions broke through the Eritrean defenses in the Biyukundi area and then advanced toward Dukambiya, 20 kilometers southeast of Barentu, before turning east and hitting an Eritrean division north of Badme in the flank, taking the Eritreans by surprise. The Eritrean division was almost totally destroyed, and the Ethiopians continued their advance toward Dukambiya. Realizing that they were about to be cut off, the remaining Eritrean units deployed in the Badme area hastily retreated, abandoning nearly 100 kilometers of fortifications and most of their heavy weapons. Ethiopian Mi-24 helicopter gunships attacked the fleeing Eritreans with rockets.