With Eritrean troops massed along the northern border with Tigray region and Ethiopian troops Amhara militia and Addis Ababa's 'people's army' along the southern border Abiy and Eritrea's President Issayas Afewerki may try to repeat their November 2020 campaign the supposed three-week 'law enforcement operation' (AC Vol 62 No 23 Rebel advance drives a diplomatic flurry)...

It would later emerge that the rebels including Issayas Afewerki's Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) were already in secret talks with Washington to facilitate the transfer of power...

He orchestrated the signing of the Tripartite Alliance in September 2018 drawing together Somalia's Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' and Eritrea's President Issayas Afewerki in a statement of intent (AC Vol 61 No 23 Risks on all fronts)...

But Eritrean President Issayas Afewerki Abiy's closest regional ally stayed away and no explanation was given...

The Minister of Education is Berhanu Nega former head of the exiled anti-Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) Ginbot7 which was armed and supported by Eritrean President Issayas Afewerki to oppose the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF)...

Farmajo wanted Abiy's help in persuading President Issayas Afewerki to allow the return of up to 5 000 Somalis who were recruited for security/military training in Eritrea...

We hear some senior officers are highly critical of the regional strategy especially the alliance with Eritrea's President Issayas Afewerki and its security implications...

Some Tigrayans believe that Prime Minister Abiy and Eritrea's President Issayas Afewerki want to obliterate the TPLF as a political force and also to destroy Tigray as a political-economic construct laying waste to its schools universities and cultural centres as well as its development projects...

President Issayas Afewerki shows no signs of listening to international demands for Eritrea's withdrawal...

At the end of last month Fahad Yassin visited Addis Ababa we hear to try to persuade Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Issayas Afewerki to send troops to Mogadishu to prevent militias of the factions opposed to Farmajo occupying roads controlling access to Villa Somalia...