Date: Friday, 22 June 2018
Tombs of Ethiopian soldiers, in the disputed locality of Badme, who died in the war against Eritrea (AFP or licensors)ensors)Marco Guerra - Vatican City
The president of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, has announced that he will send a delegation to Ethiopia for peace talks. It is a historical turning point that can finally close the war between the two countries, which had its peak between 1998 and 2000, with about 80 thousand victims and one million displaced, but that in recent years has had new upsurge and still destabilizes the whole region.
The first step towards détente was made on 5 June by the new Ethiopian premier Abiy Ahmed and his government, who announced their willingness to fully respect and implement the Algiers Agreement signed in 2000 and to respect border demarcations indicated by the UN Commission on the disputed territories.
The outstretched hand was caught only yesterday by the Eritrean head of state Afwerki who, paling in Asmara on the occasion of the celebrations for the Martyrs Day, announced the sending of the delegation to "evaluate the last events directly in depth and draw up a plan for future actions ".
Today the African Union (AU) has shown its readiness to assist the two countries "in every possible way" in the process of normalization of bilateral relations. Meanwhile the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, was pleased with the response from Eritrea and announced that he will receive the delegation.
On the positive repercussions of the pacification process we heard Marco Cochi , an expert on Africa, a collaborator of Nigrizia and a lecturer in migratory flows at Link Campus University ( Listen to the interview with Prof. Cochi ):
"Eritrea based the strengthening of its regime on the contrast with Ethiopia. This is the main reason why the Ethiopian opening was ignored for 15 days. But, of course, Aferwerki and the government have made calculations and there are many more social, political, economic advantages that Eritrea can take from this almost unexpected opening of Ethiopia. First of all, it can once and for all end the main threat of security at its borders. And then, it can put an end to the permanent state of leverage; in fact the young Eritreans from 17 years onwards are forced to military service, with an indefinite term, if the young are no longer forced to take advantage, they can then enter the workforce ".
According to Marco Cochi, any repercussions could also be felt on the issue of migratory flows from Eritrea:
