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Sun, Jan 22, 2017Gemech TussaFeatures/Articles
Many scholars argue that “one can choose a friend but can’t choose a neighbor.” Ethiopia though it managed to establish a good rapport with all of its neighboring countries and other countries in the world, its relationship with Eritrea remained hostile. This is because the state in Asmara has been exerting unreserved efforts not only to destabilize Ethiopia but also the entire Horn Region.
According to available documents the Eritrean government has either direct or indirect engagement in any of the terrorist activities and havocs in the Horn of Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular.
Besides, its aggression against Yemen, Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti as well as its participation in the terrorist activities in Somalia, South Sudan and Ethiopia alienated it not only from most countries in the continent but also from the international community.
In its efforts to conquer parts of these countries, it faced a huge lose of life and destruction of property. However, the officials of the Eritrean government couldn’t learn from their mistakes. Rather, they persisted in destabilizing countries in the region.
Available documents indicated the battle between Eritrea and Ethiopia, happened as the Eritrean Government broke international law and triggered the conflict by invading Ethiopia’s territory, which was held from June 1998 to May 2000 in which the Eritrean army was hit catastrophically.
A number of political analysts argued that Eritrea wouldn’t step for another similar action on other neighboring countries following the catastrophic war with Ethiopia. Even the international community believed that the State in Asmara could take lessons and would restrain from its aggressive and provocative actions.
Despite such Eritrean provocative actions, Ethiopia preferred to be patient and solve issues peacefully. This is because the country had identified poverty as its arch foe it didn’t want to engage in conflicts.
Neither does it need to have any dispute with neighboring countries so that it could achieve its major agenda; alleviating poverty and ensuring sustainable economic development.
But one can’t choose a neighbor. There is no end to the aggressive actions of the state in Asmara. It seemed hard for Issayas and his advocates to learn from past experiences and mistakes.
In the contrary, it strengthened its destabilizing activities in the Horn Region through terrorist activities. Its ill actions continued in South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia.
It has never ceased its proxy war and terrorist actions. The state in Eritrea either directly participates in any chaos in African countries or indirectly contributes for such destructions.
It supports some opposition political parties in other countries, plot terrorist activities, train terrorist groups and supply all the necessary logistics to destabilizing the peace and jeopardize the development of countries like Ethiopia.
The United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea previously reported that Al-Shabab and ONLF and Ginbot 7 formed a logistical cooperation as Eritrean supports them. It revealed that Eritrea has continued providing logistical and financial support to these terrorist groups.
The United Nations report also claims that Eritrea has sent 80,000 USD per month to al Shabaab through the Eritrean Embassy in Nairobi for the past two decades.
Eritrea’s terrorist action never ceased. Some of the failed terrorist actions previously exerted on Ethiopia includes the plan to destroy the Tekeze Hydro-Power Dam, the attempt to burn Addis Ababa while all African Head of States were in Ethiopia for African Union Summit and its persistent support of the terrorist groups including al-Shabab, ONLF, OLF and Ginbot 7. Issayas has also been participating in destabilizing Somalia. It has allotted a lot of money to al-shabab.
Al-Shabab is still fully supported by the state in Asmara. Every terrorist activity in the Horn Region has either direct or indirect engagement of the Eritrean State. It is festering why the Eritrean State focuses on such terrorist activities than working towards poverty alleviation so us to help its suffering people win their daily bread.
The Eritrean state has also strong connections with other terrorist groups like Boko Haram and the IS. As it is a terrorist state, all of the Eritrean wealth is allotted to terrorist activities. There is only a little money that goes to public benefits.
While the Eritrean people were suffering of winning their daily bread, the government allocated a large amount of money to attack other countries.
The government allotted a huge budget to terrorist groups to poison peace in the Horn Region but the people of Eritrea have been suffering of hunger and poverty; lack of health care and educations as well as shortage of potable water.
The United Nations Security Council imposed an arms embargo, severe travel restrictions and an asset freezing on the Eritrean military leaders, politicians because it ascertained that the Eritrean Government has been supporting the terrorist group in Somalia. Besides, the Eritrean government has infested its diplomatic relations with Ugamda and Kenya as they were participating in fighting al-Shabab under the auspice of the African Union.
Due to all the aforementioned reasons Issayas and his advocates never think of peace. They usually think of destabilizing the region in order to elongate their stay in power. This is to avert the attention of the Eritrean people and the international community away from the worst thing happening in Eritrea. All these are emanated from the need to cover the ill internal situations and the deteriorating socio economic condition.
The country is now in a critical situation. Its citizens have been immigrating to western countries and to the neighboring countries: Ethiopia, Sudan, Yemen and Kenya. But the governments interest is on terrorist actions ignoring the very need of the Eritrean people.
For instance, there are more than 170 thousand Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia. This is the result of the aggressive and provocative nature of Issayas and his advocates. The people of Eritrea have been crying for help throughout the past two decades requesting the international community to lend them a hand. However, the state in Asmara has been working against the need of the Eritrean people, neighboring people and the international community. In a need to avert the deteriorating socio-economi and political situations in his country, Issayas and his advocates have been attempting to strengthen terrorism in the Horn Region.