Djibouti was upset that Abiy was unhappy with the cost of using its port which provides Ethiopia with its current outlet to the sea and Asmara dismissed the speech saying Eritrean sovereignty was not negotiable even though as recently as July 2018 President Issayas Afewerki was saying the opposite promising that Assab once rehabilitated would be back in use for Ethiopia (AC Vol 59 No 5 Any port in a storm)...
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That could explain the presence in Riyadh of Eritrea's Issayas Afewerki and South Sudan's Salva Kiir in addition to regional heavyweights including Nigerian President Bola Tinubu Kenyan President William Ruto Rwanda's Paul Kagame and Ethiopian premier Abiy Ahmed...
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Eritrea's offer of support to Amhara nationalists seen as hugely provocative on the part of President Issayas Afewerki could reignite conflict between the Asmara and Addis Ababa governments (AC Vol 60 No 14 Asmara and Amhara)...
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And on 13 July Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el Sisi is planning to host yet another regional summit to which he has invited: South Sudan's Salva Kiir; Chad's Mahamat Idriss Déby 'Kaka'; Central African Republic's Faustin-Archange Touadéra; Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed; and Eritrea's Issayas Afewerki...
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In essence the Eritrean regime welcomes any conflict that weakens its neighbours and President Issayas Afewerki would certainly prefer Hemeti over Burhan...
Eritrea's President Issayas Afewerki is equally perturbed by the Pretoria pact and the disarmament of his Amhara allies...
Cairo may also choose to see how ties develop between Eritrea's President Issayas Afewerki and Abiy...
This was reinforced by Eritrean President Issayas Afewerki's trip to Kenya this month when he told journalists he supported the Addis Ababa-Tigray ceasefire...
On one hand Abiy must convince Amharas to accept referenda for Wolkait and Raya – and ensure that Eritrea's President Issayas Afewerki the arch-enemy of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) doesn't act as a spoiler by further backing Amhara malcontents (AC Vol 63 No 22 Addis Ababa and Tigray sign an uneasy truce)...
Vol 64 No 3 |
- ERITREA
- RUSSIA
Thanking Moscow's 'Eritrean friends for their consistent support of Russian initiatives in the UN ' Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sketched out closer ties between the two countries after meeting with President Issayas Afewerki on 26 January at the end of his four-country tour of Africa (AC Vol 64 No 3 President Putin's Africa summit in July will be key diplomatic test)...
Vol 63 No 25 |
- ERITREA
- ETHIOPIA
But Eritrean troops remain in Tigray while President Issayas Afewerki signalled his determination to destroy the TPLF by deploying 20 to 30 divisions there...