The Washington Yiakl movement has issued an open letter attacking Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s threat to seize the Eritrean port of Assab.
The Eritrean Council – DMV Region stands firm in defense of Eritrea’s sovereignty, self-determination, and peace. We call on the global community to uphold justice and international law, ensuring that no nation can threaten another’s independence under any pretext.
The letter must have been difficult to write.
Yiakl is opposed to the dictatorship that now rules Eritrea, with President Isaias Afwerki never having held and election and showing no intention of doing so. Yet Eritrea’s sovereignty is a project that goes far beyond the current regime. Eritrea’s people laid down their lives for 30 years to achieve their independence.
Eritrean independence was recognised by the African Union and UN in 1993. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, witnessed its birth in Asmara.
After the tragic 1998 – 2000 border war with Ethiopia, Eritrean borders were designated by the Boundary Commission established by Algiers peace agreement.
Assab is Eritrean by international law and is recognised as such by the UN and the African Union.
Eritrea has offered Ethiopia access to the port, but not the right to seize it by force. Hence the anger of the Eritrean community at the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s imperial ambitions.
Martin Plaut 
In 1993, unspeakable injustice was committed against Ethiopia by Egyptian agents so called Tsimdo of EPLF and TPLF. Egyptian ruler’s greatest desire is to keep Ethiopia landlocked forever, to weaken Ethiopian economic growth inorder to prevent the country not to be able to build a single dam.
It was under Egyptian influence that in 1993 UN and AU general secretaries, collaborated and facilitated Eritrea to secede and Ethiopia to be landlocked. UN secretary of general was Bourtos, the son of Bourtos Ghali who was 9th prime minster of Egypt from 1908 to 1910. Bourtos Bourtos Ghali was also the Minster of foreign affair of Egypt between 1977 and 1979. On top of that AU secretary general was Salim Ahmed Salim who is Omani descent Zanzibri of Tanzania.
TPLF was a transitional government not an elected or legitimate government, so TPLF had no any legal authority to secede the 14th province of Ethiopia in behave of Egypt.
If Eritrea had gained independence from Italy or Britain directly, it would have had the status of sovereign state. But the separatist EPLF itself clearly believes without any hesitation that EPLF has taken Ethiopian 14th province by force.