{"id":13422,"date":"2018-08-16T10:42:08","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T14:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=13422"},"modified":"2018-11-06T14:59:42","modified_gmt":"2018-11-06T19:59:42","slug":"ethio-eritrean-thaw-heading-for-democratic-horn-and-stronger-igad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=13422","title":{"rendered":"Ethio-Eritrean thaw heading for democratic Horn and stronger IGAD"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

. .DISARMAMENT & SECURITY. .<\/p>\n

An article by Yosef Ketema in The Ethiopian Herald<\/a><\/p>\n

The recent\u00a0 and landmark\u00a0 rapprochement\u00a0 of Ethiopia and Eritrea will play crucial role in\u00a0 bringing about genuine\u00a0 and home-grown democracy as well as strengthening the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Scholars say.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

For Addis Ababa University African Political Studies lecturer Tewodros Mebratu,\u00a0 Ethiopia\u2019s\u00a0 ongoing political reforms and the rapid\u00a0 thaw between Ethiopia and Eritrea\u00a0 after\u00a0 two decades of no peace-no war situation, have several positive spillover effects in\u00a0 the\u00a0 Horn of\u00a0 Africa and beyond.<\/p>\n

He says : \u201cDuring the past two decades, many countries in East Africa, Middle East and others used to be in diplomatic dilemma as they could\u00a0 not confidently\u00a0 decide with whom they could forge\u00a0warmer ties with either\u00a0Ethiopia and Eritrea.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He, moreover, says because of the two countries’ hostile relations, insurgent groups and terrorists had been taking advantages of the situation\u00a0 in carrying out various terrorist acts in the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso regional organizations like IGAD had\u00a0 been accustomed to lack of consistency in\u00a0 decision\u00a0-making\u00a0 on various\u00a0 regional and international\u00a0 matters. <\/p>\n

And this in turn has played big role in weakening IGAD\u2019s influence on\u00a0 building sustainable peace and economic partnership with other regional players, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and The Southern African Development Community (SADC) which\u00a0 are relatively successful in reinforcing peace and stability as well as cooperation among their members,\u201d he\u00a0 points out.<\/p>\n

He, therefore, notes that the thawing of the relationship between Ethiopia and Eritrea will benefit both countries economically, socially and politically as their priorities are definitely\u00a0 going to\u00a0 be realizing peace, regional cooperation and prosperity.<\/p>\n

(continued in right column)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Question for this article:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

\n

Can peace be achieved between Ethiopia and Eritrea?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(continued from left column)<\/p>\n

“Hopefully, the ending of the state of war between these two\u00a0 countries will give impetus\u00a0\u00a0 to Eritrea\u00a0 in a bid to\u00a0 put into action\u00a0 its\u00a0 homegrown\u00a0 democracy as\u00a0 the country’s existential\u00a0 security\u00a0 risk has been removed for good.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regarding the rejoining\u00a0 of Eritrea\u00a0 to IGAD, he says it will strengthen this regional organization’s activities\u00a0 towards ensuring peace and\u00a0 stability\u00a0 in South Sudan and Somalia, which have been\u00a0 the headache of\u00a0 the Horn region for a long time.<\/p>\n

“So long as IGAD member states work in unison against poverty, corruption and foreign intervention, IGAD will get the chance and capacity to positively intervene in issues like South Sudan and can reinforce stability for the region’s habitants,” Tewodros\u00a0 notes.<\/p>\n

Humanitarian Expert Mulualem Getachew, who works for the\u00a0 International Organizations Affairs division at the\u00a0 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for his part says : \u201cThe\u00a0 Ethio-Eritrea Stalemate that lasted for nearly two decades had created havoc in\u00a0 the efforts of\u00a0 strengthening\u00a0\u00a0 IGAD’s role in\u00a0 bringing economic integration among\u00a0 member states. Plus these two countries’ rivalry\u00a0 used to have great impacts against settling the conflicts in South Sudan and Somalia.\u201d<\/p>\n

He therefore says that from now on, it will be\u00a0 easier for IGAD to mobilize its community and to solve burning issues like South Sudan\u2019s case and channel its full effort in bringing sustainable development in the Horn region. \u00a0<\/p>\n

If the current\u00a0 promising political reforms in Ethiopia move\u00a0 at a good pace , the Horn\u00a0 region\u00a0 will have bright future of democratization, he says adding : “Now, we can unequivocally say\u00a0 that the right time has\u00a0 come to fight terrorism.”<\/p>\n

He\u00a0 also\u00a0 underscores\u00a0 that\u00a0 it was\u00a0 difficult and\u00a0 impossible to dismantle terrorism during\u00a0 the past\u00a0 two decades as Eritrea remained passive\u00a0 in fighting terrorism.<\/p>\n

Therefore, both Tewodros and Mulalem indicate the current political situations in Ethiopia and Eritrea have brought great opportunities for East African countries and IGAD\u00a0 in line with\u00a0 ensuring genuine\u00a0 democracy, holding\u00a0 similar stands on various regional and international agendas and speeding\u00a0 up the ongoing\u00a0 political as well as economic integration of the region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. .DISARMAMENT & SECURITY. . An article by Yosef Ketema in The Ethiopian Herald The recent\u00a0 and landmark\u00a0 rapprochement\u00a0 of Ethiopia and Eritrea will play crucial role in\u00a0 bringing about genuine\u00a0 and home-grown democracy as well as strengthening the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Scholars say.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 For Addis Ababa University African Political Studies lecturer … Continue reading Ethio-Eritrean thaw heading for democratic Horn and stronger IGAD<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,16],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-13422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-disarmament","tag-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}