Date: Monday, 05 November 2018
They are now the last days for the international sanctions to Eritrea, wanted by Obama in 2009 and 2011 on false accusations, and even more severe than those applied to Iran and North Korea. It is an extremely positive sign for the economy, businesses, and above all for peace and integration in the Horn of Africa.
In the case of Eritrea, however, they were interpreted in an enormously broader sense, to the point of being even more severe than those applied to countries such as Iran and North Korea. In fact Eritrea not only could not import weapons, but not even ammunition, and this was obviously functional to weaken it in the situation of "neither war nor peace" with Ethiopia at the time still governed by the Popular Front of Liberation of the Tigray. Furthermore, even products from the civilian market were not salable in Eritrea: from transport to agricultural machinery, and so on.
The sanctions to Somalia, if they will not be renewed, will expire automatically on November 15th, and apparently the United States, which in the Obama era were its promoters, today have no interest in carrying them forward. These sanctions also concern the interdiction of maritime traffic.
This date also applies to Eritrea, and even in this case it is closely linked to the work of the Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SMEG), known for having produced in its years of activity above all numerous hoaxes, whose term will expire December 15th.
The Security Council will also discuss the renewal of measures against piracy, the deadline for which will fall next 7 November. In this case the question concerns above all some areas of Somalia, and the news could be given by the fact that Eritrea will be officially involved, along with other countries in the region, in providing its own solutions or ideas to get out of this impasse.
This would represent a very important turning point, since the accusations made in the past to Eritrea about his work in Somalia had no basis: in fact there was not a single Eritrean soldier in Somali territory, let alone to provide assistance to the fundamentalist militiamen of Shabaab. This even seemed very surreal to the experts of Eritrean things, as Eritrea had just become independent and had to defend itself from Al-Qaeda's attempt to penetrate its territory coming from Sudan. The failure of this attempt wanted by Bin Laden, thanks to the prompt reaction of the Eritrean armed forces, had therefore pushed Al-Qaeda to fall back on Afghanistan.
Even from this experience we can understand how much help, of truly fundamental importance, can give Eritrea in the fight against terrorism and fundamentalism. It is extremely positive that at the international level finally this concept is understood and accepted.
Then, on 31 May 2019, the mandate of the AU Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) will expire, and this will further facilitate the process of integration and cooperation between the various actors of the Horn of Africa.
