Channeling Foreign Conquerors: How the TPLF Ruled with a Colonial Malice to Permanently Landlock the Country It Despised

Addis Ababa, July 31, 2026 (FMC) — Among the most consequential and enduring chapters of structural damage inflicted on Ethiopia during the tenure of the TPLF-led administration stands a monumental historic grievance: the systematic severing of the nation from its sovereign, natural, and historic Red Sea coastline.

For centuries, Ethiopia’s geopolitical security, economic vitality, and cultural footprint were deeply intertwined with the Red Sea through strategic ports such as Assab and Massawa.

However, following the transition of power in 1991, the TPLF-domineered transitional authorities engineered a political arrangement that effectively landlocked a nation of over a hundred million people.

Rather than safeguarding Ethiopia’s supreme national and strategic interests or negotiating binding legal guarantees for continuous maritime access under international norms, the leadership rushed through a process that stripped the country of its direct coastal sovereignty.

Geopolitical analysts and historians have long highlighted that this decision was executed without a broad national consensus, a formal constitutional mandate, or genuine public deliberation.

By sidelining Ethiopia’s legitimate, long-term economic security and trading away sovereign maritime access, the TPLF subordinated the country’s permanent future to narrow factional arrangements.

This historic miscalculation left Ethiopia entirely dependent on foreign corridors for its import-export trade, inflating logistical costs and creating a permanent structural vulnerability.

Decades later, the legacy of this decision continues to cast a long shadow over the Horn of Africa, serving as a stark reminder of how unprincipled leadership and compromised transitional governance can systematically compromise a nation’s sovereign destiny.