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SOMALIA-ERITREA-ETHIOPIA-DIPLOMACY
Somalia, Eritrea mend ties as change sweeps Horn of Africa
NAIROBI, July 30, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The presidents of Somalia and Eritrea on
Monday signed an agreement to establish diplomatic ties after over a decade
of animosity, in the latest lightning rapprochement between Horn of Africa
rivals.
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s three-day visit to Asmara
coincides with an extraordinary peace process between Eritrea and Ethiopia —
part of dizzying change in a region burdened by war, proxy conflicts,
isolation and iron-fisted rule.
“The two countries will establish diplomatic relations and exchange
ambassadors,” read a “joint declaration on brotherly relations” signed in
Asmara by Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Mohamed.
The declaration came just three weeks after Ethiopia and Eritrea declared
an end to two decades of conflict, rapidly restoring diplomatic ties and
flights between their capitals.
The history of the three nations, and their fallouts, have been
intertwined.
Somalia and Eritrea were once close. Under Somali dictator Siad Barre,
the military regime in Mogagishu backed Eritrea’s long fight for independence
from Ethiopia, which was attained in 1993.
In 1998 Ethiopia and Eritrea began a bloody two-year war over their
shared border which left 80,000 dead before settling into a bitter cold war.
After the fall of Barre in 1991, Somalia fell into chaos.
By around 2006, it became the site of what observers called a proxy war
between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Ethiopia backed backing a weak interim government in Mogadishu while
Eritrea was accused of backing the Islamic militants fighting to overthrow
it, a charge it denied.
The United Nations Security Council in 2009 imposed an arms embargo and
targeted sanctions on Eritrea for its alleged support of the Al-Qaeda linked
Al-Shabaab militants, which continue to launch regular deadly attacks despite
losing territory in recent years.
The declaration placed special emphasis on its support for the Somali
government.
“Eritrea strongly supports the political independence, sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Somalia as well as the efforts of the people and
government of Somalia to restore the country’s rightful stature and achieve
the lofty aspirations of its people,” it said.The document, posted on
Eritrea’s information ministry website, also said the two nations “will
endeavor to forge intimate political, economic, social, cultural as well as
defense and security cooperation.”
They will in addition “work in unison to foster regional peace, stability
and economic integration.”
– End of ‘epoch of conflict’ –
At a state banquet on Sunday, Afwerki bemoaned the gloomy post-Cold
War history of the Horn of Africa.
He said the region had been destroyed by “ethnic and clan cleavages” and
“external pillage and internal thievery” in the speech which also lashed out
at the “micromanagement of anarchy” by the United Nations and NGOs.
“Under these bleak realities, interventionist and expansionist regional
agendas in the name of religion, cultural intoxication under various
extremist ideologies, terrorism, piracy, human trafficking, as well as trade
in weapons and narcotics became the new normal,” he said, according to a
speech posted on the information ministry’s website.
“But this epoch of crises, conflict and instability is not inherently
sustainable. As such, it is nearing its end. We are indeed entering a new,
transitional, phase.”
Ethiopia, which is undergoing lightning reforms under new Prime Minister
Abiy Ahmed, has already formally requested that sanctions be lifted against
Eritrea.
And in the wake of Ethiopia’s peace with Eritrea, its other neighbour
and rival Djibouti asked the UN Security Council for help mediating a long-
standing border dispute that has soured relations with Asmara.
BSS/AFP/RY/1814 hrs