Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced Sunday that landlocked Ethiopia has expanded its military training to include naval operations, casting his armed forces as a regional “shield” as tensions surge in the Horn of Africa.
Speaking at a stadium in the southern city of Hawassa, Abiy said the shift targets piracy and “maritime terrorism” along the volatile Red Sea corridor.
He said the security zone stretches from the tip of Somalia to the Eritrean port of Massawa.
“Our preparations are aimed at guaranteeing peace across the entirety of Africa,” Abiy told the crowd during a ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the Ethiopian Special Operations Command.
For decades, Ethiopia focused its military training on land, mountains, and rivers.
On Sunday, Abiy said his forces have now explicitly widened those capabilities to include complex maritime operations. He pledged to work with “brotherly peoples” to secure critical sea lanes.
He also pointed to the deployment of an elite force equipped with advanced technology, including reconnaissance and “kamikaze” drones that can strike fortified positions.
Armed forces chief Field Marshal Berhanu Jula addressed the ceremony as well, which culminated in tactical drills and the graduation of commando trainees.
Berhanu said that despite years of internal conflict, Ethiopia has rebuilt a “versatile and reliable” defence force that is highly disciplined and free from partisan affiliation.
Strategic sea access
Ethiopia’s maritime readiness announcement lands at a critical moment for Africa’s second-most populous nation.
Ethiopia lost its coastline in 1993 when Eritrea gained independence after a decades-long war.
Since then, Addis Ababa has depended heavily on neighbouring Djibouti, which handles about 95 percent of its inbound trade.
As it sought to diversify maritime options, Ethiopia triggered a major diplomatic crisis in January 2024.
Addis Ababa signed a controversial memorandum of understanding with the breakaway region of Somaliland, leasing a stretch of coastline for commercial and naval use.
Mogadishu reacted furiously to the pact, saying Somaliland remains part of Somalia’s sovereign territory.
Somalia retaliated by expelling Ethiopia’s ambassador and threatening to remove thousands of Ethiopian troops operating within its borders.
Those troops serve under bilateral arrangements and the African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), which formally replaced a previous peacekeeping force in January 2025.
Turkish-mediated talks throughout 2024, however, led to the “Ankara Declaration” in December, pushing the two nations toward a fragile detente.
Recent negotiations have shifted away from a sovereign naval base in Somaliland, focusing instead on securing commercial Ethiopian access to federal Somali ports.
‘Powder keg’
Abiy’s explicit mention on Sunday of a security corridor extending to the Eritrean port of Massawa comes at a highly sensitive moment.
International crisis monitors have recently described relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea as a “powder keg”.
The two nations fought a brutal border war from 1998 to 2000, then reconciled in a 2018 peace deal that earned Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.
Eritrean forces also backed Abiy’s government during the devastating 2020–2022 Tigray war in northern Ethiopia.
But relations have plunged into acrimony since Asmara was excluded from the November 2022 Pretoria peace agreement that ended the Tigray conflict.
Earlier this month, Ethiopia sent a formal letter accusing Eritrea of military aggression, saying Asmara was occupying border territories and backing internal armed groups.
Eritrea swiftly dismissed the claims as “false and fabricated.”
Asmara views Abiy’s persistent rhetoric on Red Sea access as an implicit threat of invasion.
Despite the heightened military readiness, Abiy has repeatedly insisted Ethiopia will pursue its maritime goals through dialogue, publicly ruling out armed conflict over ports.
Abiy also did not provide operational details on Sunday on how landlocked Ethiopia would conduct its new maritime training.
But he insisted his preparations are purely defensive and intended only to support stability across the broader Horn of Africa.
