Khartoum visit by Eritrean president comes amid strained relations between government of Ethiopia, a close ally, and Sudan.
Isaia’s visit also comes as he faces growing pressure from the international community to withdraw Eritrean troops from Tigray. Soldiers from Eritrea, long an enemy of Tigray’s now-fugitive leaders, have also been blamed for some of the worst human rights abuses in the Tigray conflict, including massacres of civilians and systematic rape.
Leaders agreed on priority of working together to address conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray.
US President Joe Biden and Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of United Arab Emirates discussed a range of issues, including Iran and the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the White House said Tuesday.
Many came with almost nothing. And yet, “I don’t want to think of going back,” said 21-year-old Wegahta Weldie, a student from Mai Kadra, the scene of the six-month-old conflict’s first known massacre.
She recalled stepping on dead bodies there as her family hid in a maize field and then walked hundreds of kilometers (miles) to reach Mekele.
“Many people had been killed and it was very dark,” she said. “I could not tell whether they were my relatives or not.”
The U.S. envoy for the Horn of Africa on Wednesday met with the Egyptian president as part of Washington’s new push to find a resolution to a regional decade-long dispute over Ethiopia’s massive dam on the Nile River’s main tributary.
Jeffrey Feltman arrived in Cairo on Tuesday on the first leg of a tour that includes stops in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan amid growing concerns the dispute could escalate into a military conflict, threatening the entire region.
Ethiopia is set to hold elections in a month, but with war in the north, ethnic violence elsewhere and major logistical hurdles, the path to credible polls is littered with obstacles.
A six-month-old war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region is the most high-profile of several security crises that will make voting impossible in large swathes of the country.
The conflict in the Tigray region in Ethiopia broke out early November 2020. It is estimated that thousands of fighters and civilians have died, and around 4.5 million people require emergency food assistance, of whom an estimated 2.2 million are displaced. Over 60,000 have crossed the border into Sudan in search of safety.
Food distribution remains the main component of the emergency response. As of 29 April, the Government and World Food Programme have distributed more than 19,000 metric tons of food, reaching 1.1 million people in 35 districts in the region.
the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in a statement that the 27-nation bloc would also not monitor preparations for the June 5 election including voter registration.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his Prosperity Party face challenges from increasingly strident ethnically-based parties seeking more power for their regions.
With the absence of a political solution for the crisis that erupted from Addis Ababa’s intransigence, and Egypt’s impatience regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a military option is now on the table, according to Cairo.
In the case of that happening, Sudan is set to pay the biggest price. The two combating nations do not share borders, and if the dam is destroyed fully or partially by Egypt, the direction of the flood will move towards Sudanese territories.
While calls for the Government of Eritrea to pull out of the conflict in Ethiopia increases, the international community must also consider the repercussions of Eritrean intervention in the Tigray war if a lasting solution is to be developed.
“Refugees International is concerned about reports that Ethiopian government forces and Eritrean soldiers have forced Eritrean refugees to return to Eritrea or other locations where they may be in danger. For example, Eritrean refugees who fled to Addis Ababa to avoid the fighting in Tigray have been rounded up and returned to camps in Tigray. This is unacceptable, as camps in Tigray are in the middle of an active conflict zone and have little access to food or medical supplies.”
