Isaias Afewerki; The Greatest Obstacle to Peace in the Horn of Africa

Eritrea declared independence in May 24, 1993 from Ethiopia. Upon Eritrea’s declaration of independence, the leader of the EPLF, Isaias Afewerki, became the first Provisional President. And the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (later renamed the People’s Front for democracy and Justice, or PFDJ) created a government. As agreed by Ethiopia, Eritrea held and internationally supervised referendum dubbed UNOVER which ended in April 1993 with overwhelming vote by Eritreans for independence.

The year following Eritrea’s independence, Asmara regime severed relations with Sudan and threatened to wage a war against Khartoum. Eritrea hosted rebels against Sudan in effort to destabilize the very country which helped Eritrea to achieve its long sought independence. Later in 2005 the aggression of the newly born country led by the stubborn President Isaias Efewerki, was stopped with the help of the golf nation of Qatar.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Afewerki to make another enemy. Eritrea was embroiled in a war with Yemen over a border dispute surrounding the Hanish Island in 1996. Again, the rebel minded President Afewerki’s aggression was resolved, this time, by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in 1998.

Perhaps the conflict with the deepest impact on Eritrea has been the renewed hostility with Ethiopia in 1998. As usual, Eritrea tried to solve a border dispute over the town of Bedme between the two countries by force. The war ended in 2000 with the intervention of the United Nations with no permanent peace deal reached between Eritrea and Ethiopia to date.
Fast forward, According to the United Nations, Eritrea started to arm and finance the so called Islamic Courts Union for many years, Even before they briefly rose to power in Mogadishu. Eritrea has long denied its ties with the ICU, which is an organization that has links with international terrorist groups such as, Alqaeda, according to the west and the UN.

Such denial ended when Eritrea harbored the leader of the ICU, Dahir Aways, in Asmara. In another evidence of Eritrea’s deep ties with the defeated group, Afewerki regime has helped them to convene a meeting which many renounced as an act of destabilization of the Transitional Federal Government and the peace conference which was then taking place in Mogadishu.

In conclusion, Eritrea should stop meddling in the affairs of other countries and instead focus on improving the lives of its own people. Asmara regime should also cut ties to the enemy of the Somali people and immediately oust the ICU members of which they harbored on their soil. It is against the international law to harbor, collaborate or in any way assist a known terrorist group, therefore, since Eritrea is member of the United Nation, it should abandon all commitment made with the ICU and related groups. Only then should Eritrea realizes how far the country is running behind the rest of the world in areas of, but not limited; Education Transportation, Employment and Religious freedom. A report by the Reporters without Borders, listed Eritrea the last of the list of 169 countries when it come to the Freedom of the Press.

Reference:
Waikipia,
Reporters without Borders.
BBC.

Abdirahmna I. Mohamed-Takhal
atakhal@aol.com