Badme ባድመ بادم | |
|---|---|
  Badme Location in Eritrea[1] | |
| Coordinates:14°43′34″N37°48′12″E / 14.72611°N 37.80333°E /14.72611; 37.80333 | |
| Country | Eritrea |
| Region | Gash-Barka |
| Population (2005) | |
• Total | 1,563 |
| Climate | BSh |
Badme (Tigrinya:ባድመ,Arabic:بادم) is a town inGash-Barka region ofEritrea. Control of the town was at the centre of theEritrean–Ethiopian border conflict, which lasted from the beginning of theEritrean–Ethiopian War, in 1998, to the signing of a joint statement at theEritrea–Ethiopia summit in 2018, twenty years later.
The boundaries of Ethiopia and Eritrea follow a frontier defined by theTreaty of Addis Ababa between Ethiopia and Italy, which ruled Eritrea as a colony at the time.[2] However, the frontier near Badme was poorly defined in the treaty, and since Eritrea became a separate nation in 1993, each nation has disputed where the boundary actually runs. The town of Badme was ceded[citation needed] by theTPLF (the predecessor of theEPRDF, Ethiopia's former ruling party) to theEPLF (the predecessor of thePFDJ, Eritrea's ruling organization) in November 1977.[3][page needed]
The Ethiopian government considered Badme as one of four towns inTahtay Adiyaboworeda. In addition to Badme, other disputed areas along the Eritrean–Ethiopian border includeTsorona-Zalambessa andBure.
In 2000, Eritrea and Ethiopia signed theAlgiers Agreement, which forwarded the border dispute to aHague boundary commission. In the agreement, both parties agreed in advance to comply with the ruling of the border commission. In 2002, the commission ruled on where the boundary ran, placing Badme inside Eritrean territory.
Despite initially agreeing to abide by the terms of the Algiers Agreement, Ethiopia rejected its ruling and refused to withdraw to the border established by the Eritrea–Ethiopia Boundary Commission. As a result, thousands of internally displaced people were in refugee camps and there was a threat of renewed war.
In 2002, authorities in Ethiopia'sTigray Region resettled some 210 people fromcentral Tigray to Badme.[4]
In 2005, Badme residents voted in Ethiopian elections for the first time sinceEritrean independence in 1991.[5][6][7]
In June 2018, following a meeting of the executive council of theEthiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the ruling party in Ethiopia, thegovernment of Ethiopia announced plans to withdraw from Badme and cede it to Eritrea.[8] Abilateral summit the following month ended the border conflict.
During theTigray War, attacks were carried out on Badme by the joint Ethiopian and Eritrean armies.On 19 December 2020, a foreign diplomat stated that "thousands" ofEritrean soldiers are engaged in Tigray. Two diplomats claimed that Eritrean troops entered Ethiopia through three northern border towns:Zalambessa,Rama, and Badme.[9]
TheCentral Statistical Agency of Ethiopia in 2005 reported that this town has an estimated total population of 1,563, of whom 834 are men and 729 are women.[10]
