Eritrea’s diplomatic offensive?

An US congressional delegation to Eritrea���the first in 14 years���which included Ilhan Omar, got little attention in mainstream media. Why?





Left to right: US Embassy Charge��d���Affaires��Natalie E. Brown, Ilham Omar, Eritrea���s minister of information��Yemane��Gebremeskel, Karen Bass and��Congressman��Joe��Neguse. Image via US Embassy Asmara Eritrea Facebook page.

Ilhan��Omar, the Somali-American congresswoman from Minneapolis, has��been in the headlines lately for��calling out Israel���s influence on US foreign policy��and��for��her grilling of��Donald��Trump���s Venezuela envoy, the��war criminal Elliot Abrams. Less well covered has been��her��venturing into the United States’s policy on Africa.

At the beginning of March��Omar joined a��US Congressional Committee led by Rep. Karen Bass��to��visit��Eritrea. Others in the delegation included��Eritrean-American��congressman��Joe��Neguse��of Colorado.

Karen Bass is chairperson of the US House of Representatives��Foreign��Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, so this clearly was a high level affair.

That the visit happened may have been largely a consequence of changing geopolitics and conflicting interests of the superpowers in the Horn of Africa; buying time for��Eritrea���s Life-President Isaias��Afwerki��and his regime, in power for 27 years already. It is unclear who will benefit from��the visit by the US delegation: the US, the Eritreans or even Eritrea’s more powerful neighbor, Ethiopia. Afwerki���s��regime has been shunned by the US and subjected to sanctions.

We doubt that the visit will receive the kind of scrutiny Omar���s remarks about Israel have received in US media. In a��tweet, Omar described the visit as the ���the first American delegation to Eritrea in decades.�����It was the first in fourteen years.��But the US may be following its chief ally in the region, Ethiopia.

The presence of Ilhan Omar on the trip was significant. She was born in Somalia, also in the Horn, and fled to the US via a Kenyan refugee camp with her family, settling in Minneapolis as a teenager. In Omar’s short time in Congress, Omar has emerged as a leading critic of US foreign policy. But, Eritrea may prove to be something else.

During the Eritrea visit,��Omar sent out a bland��tweet��about her visit to Eritrea and expressed her gratefulness for being part of the delegation. She finished with�����I fight peace and justice because only those who experience the pain of war, know the joy of peace.���

Then her tweets returned to domestic US politics.

A number of Twitter users, including many Eritreans, reminded��Omar��of��the systemic abuses committed��by Eritrea���s government against its citizens.

As for Karen Bass, she has��bashed��President Trump for meeting with North Korea���s autocratic leader. Eritrea is often characterized as ���Africa���s North Korea.����� Some Eritreans couldn���t pass up the opportunity to remind Bass of her��double standard��for leading a delegation��to the North Korea of Africa.

Joe��Neguse, whose parents fled Eritrea in 1980, then still under Ethiopian control, also had little to say. He only added to a collective post-trip press statement signed by Bass:�����I look forward to further discussions with my colleagues and the State Department on how to further promote peace, security, human rights, and democratic reforms in the region.���

Statements by��Bass and��tweets by��Eritrean government officials,��suggested��the delegation held�����a��series of meetings,��� with senior government officials, according to��a tweet��from��the Eritrean minister of information,��Yemane��G.��Meskel.��On her way��back to the US, during a��stopover in Addis Ababa,��Ethiopia, Bass��spoke��to��the��Associated Press��about the Eritrea visit. For Bass,��Eritrea�����has been a mystery������showing little reform��since rapprochement��with Ethiopia. Yet, she hoped to see several detained US nationals including former US embassy staff to be released�����promptly, as well as other people who are incarcerated.���

So, in the absence of��independent��media��or��press conferences (especially on the Eritrea side), no one knows the outcome of��the��meetings. Eritrean state media��was quiet on the matter.��There was no mention of the meeting��apart from the minister���s tweet. (A��visit by��French��congressional��delegation��around the same time,��also received only��one-tweet��by the��information��minister.��This, in��contrast to the��relatively strong��state media��coverage of a visit by a��Russian��delegation��at the time.)

More significant has been��Afwerki���s��diplomatic��engagement with��other African states, especially Ethiopia.

On March 3,��Afwerki��met with Kenyan President,��Uhuru Kenyatta,��and��Ethiopian Prime Minister,��Abiy��Ahmed,��in what��Eritrean��state media��described��as��a�����Tripartite Summit.�����Kenyatta flew back the next day,��while��Afwerki��took Ahmed to��show��him��the dams��he had personally��supervised��during construction.��(This while��Eritrea���s��cities, including Asmara, are suffering from��a��shortage of running water,��further exacerbated��in August last year when��more than 300 water truck owners��were��rounded up and required to pay huge amounts��to be released.)

Afwerki��and Ahmed��then��flew to South Sudan and met with President Salva��Kiir��on��March 4th.��Clad in khaki attire, the newly enamored leaders, each facing mounting pressures in their respective��countries,����discussed��regional economic integration��before��addressing domestic issues.

In the fast-pace diplomatic thaw between Eritrea and Ethiopia,��the unholy��alliance��of the��leaders��is unnerving��Eritreans.��Since July 2018, when��Afwerki��made his first official visit to Ethiopia, Eritreans have been��wary of his utterances. His mercurial temperament and his grand��ambitions��make the fear legitimate. This��is��further compounded��by��the opaque nature of the regime wherein��the��majority, including��senior officials,��are��alienated. In his first speech��in Awasa, Ethiopia, President��Afwerki��stated,�����from now on,��anyone who says��Eritrea and Ethiopia��are��two��people is out of reality.�����Then he��told��Abiy�����you are our leader��� and��declared: ���I���ve given him all responsibility of leadership and power.���

Since July 2018,��Afwerki��has met with��Abiy��nine times while he has only met with his Cabinet ministers once.

But a return of US and Ethiopian influence is not the only thing ordinary Eritreans have to think about.��In August��2018��Reuters��reported that��the��UAE is planning to build��an oil��pipeline from the Eritrean port��Assab��to Addis Ababa. There��has��been��no��official��confirmation��on the��report��from the Eritrean side. ���Then in��January 2019��at the��World Economic Forum��in��Davos-Klosters, Switzerland,��Ahmed��said he doesn���t see the need to have separate armies and embassies for Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti.��A��few days later,��the official handle of Ethiopia���s Prime Minister��tweeted��that Ahmed held talks with��his��Italian counterpart and agreed to build an Addis��Ababa-Massawa railway line.��Massawa is��an��Eritrean port-city;��Eritrea���s��diaspora, fiercely nationalist,��responded��ferociously. In his attempt to��ease qualms, the Eritrean minister of information��tweeted��that the proposed railway line��was part of the ���cooperation between the��three��countries explored in previous meetings.�����It��didn���t stop there.��When��the administrator of Ethiopia���s��Oromia Region, Lemma��Megersa, was asked why Ethiopia is building a navy when it does not have��a��sea, he��replied, ���You never know, we might have access to a sea��in the future.���

During Ethiopia’s��political parties��meetings last month, Ahmed stressed Ethiopia���s unity and��assured��the audience that ���Ethiopia won���t disintegrate, but it is a matter of time that those��who have left would return.�����He��did not mention names, but it was obvious that he was implying Eritrea.

The��diaspora-based Eritrean independent media��are examining these events in retrospect.��Prominent exiled��freedom fighters have been sharing different anecdotes��that foreshadow��Afwerki���s��ambivalent stand on Eritrea���s national sovereignty. The��anxiety��is widely shared, including among��leading Eritrean intellectuals.

Bereket Habte Selassie, the��chairperson of��Eritrea���s��1997 constitution��(never implemented),��told journalist Martin Plaut,��that��with��Afwerki���s��singlehanded decisions,�����Eritrea has been offered to Ethiopia��on a silver platter.���