Assab Autonomous Region

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The regions of Ethiopia 1987–1991

The Autonomous Region of Assab existed from 1987 to 1991 as an autonomous region in Ethiopia . It was named after the port city of Assab and comprised the areas of the Afar ethnic group belonging to Ethiopia .

history

The areas within Ethiopia inhabited by Afar had been divided into the provinces of Eritrea , Tigray , Wollo , Shewa and Hararge after the Second World War . Afar have protested in vain for the unification and autonomy of their territories since the 1960s.

With the constitution of 1987, which made Ethiopia the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia , the Assab Autonomous Region was created as one of five autonomous regions. The establishment of the autonomous regions was an attempt by the Mengistu regime to respond to the rebellions and independence movements in different parts of the country.

The establishment of the Assab Autonomous Region was intended to strengthen the Afar's loyalty to Ethiopia. The Afar, who themselves did not strive for independence and who had too little political and military power for this, should be involved both against the independence movement in Eritrea and against Somalia's territorial claims (cf. Greater Somalia ). In particular, Ethiopia's control over the strategically and economically important port of Assab was to be secured by separating it from the previous province of Eritrea (the rest of Eritrea now formed the autonomous region of Eritrea ).

After Mengistu's fall in May 1991, the Assab Autonomous Region was dissolved and Eritrea was restored to its former borders, while the remaining Ethiopian Afar territories became one of nine ethnically defined regions as the Afar region . In 1993 Eritrea, including Assab, became independent.

The Afar organization ARDUF / Uguugumo rejects the independence of Eritrea and demands the reconnection of the Eritrean Afar areas to Ethiopia.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Yasin Mohammed Yasin: Political history of the Afar in Ethiopia and Eritrea. GIGA Institute of African Affairs, in: Afrika Spectrum 42, 2008, pp. 39–65 (PDF file; 237 kB)
  2. ↑ Edmond J. Keller: Revolutionary Ethiopia: From Empire to People's Republic , Indiana University Press, 1991, ISBN 9780253206466 (pp. 242f.)
  3. ↑ Christopher Clapham: Transformation and Continuity in Revolutionary Ethiopia , African Studies 61, 1990, ISBN 9780521396509 (p. 252)