Odds and Ends in the Horn: Eritrea

In the 30 years of Eritrea's war for independence from Ethiopia, no city suffered greater damage than the port of Massawa. Once known as the pearl of the Red Sea, Massawa in 1995, four years after the end of the fighting, remained a scene of devastation. But change was coming, as I found when I visited the city during a May trip that year marking the second anniversary of Eritrea's independence.

The old man chatters incessantly as he leads a small group of visitors up the rubble-strewn stairs of the bomb-shattered Imperial Palace in Massawa and opens the padlocked door.

This was once a glistening, tile-covered, domed structure on the shores of the Red Sea, a pleasant if only occasionally visited retreat for Ethiopian leader Haile Selassie. It is now just a derelict home for hundreds of pigeons.

Massawa first suffered heavy damage in 1977, three years after Haile Selassie was deposed by a Marxist military regime. Ethiopian forces in the port came under attack that year from Eritrean rebels who were driven off under fierce shelling from Ethiopian ships offshore.

It was bombed again in 1990, when Ethiopian Air Force planes struck for 10 straight days after Eritrean rebels seized the port city as their 30-year war for independence neared its end.

A translator says the worst damage to the Imperial Palace occurred in the 1990 raids.

“This is 1990 by the airplane. Very badly damaged, you can see, badly damaged, you can say.”

The devastation of those brutal raids is still evident everywhere -- from the massive hole in the dome of the Imperial Palace to the rusting hulks of abandoned tanks that can still be found in several streets.

But there is also evidence of new life. The port is bustling with activity as cargo ships unload cement, steel bars, and other construction materials. There is also a new hotel in the center of Massawa and a small but growing tourist population taking advantage of what local residents describe as wonderful sailing and scuba diving opportunities in the Dahlak islands close to the mainland.

Still, most of Massawa's 40-thousand or so residents live in makeshift shacks on the outskirts of this town once known as the pearl of the Red Sea.

Others, mainly members of the nomadic Arabic-speaking Rashaida ethnic group, live in traditional tents near the seashore with their livestock. But change is coming for these people as well. A Rashaida man takes a group of visitors from his tent, past his newly-purchased pick-up truck, to fields where he has planted groundnuts (peanuts) and melons. Proudly, he plucks a ripe melon from the earth, slices it with the short, curved dagger he carries in his waistband and presents pieces to his guests to enjoy. After 20 years in exile in neighboring Sudan, the man says he intends to stay put -- to take advantage of the schools and medical services Eritrea's transitional government is beginning to open in Massawa.

Not far from Massawa, foreign companies are soon expected to begin exploring for oil and natural gas. Commercial fishing is already a rich source of income -- so rich that the government recently seized three Egyptian trawlers for allegedly working inside Eritrean waters. One source with knowledge of the case says the owners were apparently willing to risk arrest and confiscation of their vessels because, in the source's words, just two or three trips would yield hauls so lucrative they would pay off the cost of the fishing boats.

So, despite the years of hardship and destruction, one diplomat says there is new hope here along the Eritrean coast, and a bright future.