Category: Politics

China’s approach to security issues is meant to be in line with African frameworks, in accordance with the principle of non-intervention.

A month ago, during a visit to Eritrea, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the sudden announcement that Beijing will create the position of a new peace and security envoy specifically for the Horn of Africa (HOA). Wang framed the announcement as an “Initiative of Peaceful Development in the Horn of Africa.”

Does the appointment mean Beijing is finally shifting its long held non-interventionist stance when it comes to peace and security in other countries? After all, other permanent United Nations Security Council members such as the U.S., U.K., and France do not have such a stance.

To answer this question, it is worth understanding three key points: Why has China held the non-intervention principle? What is China’s record on peace and security in the Horn of Africa? And what are the African demands on development partners, including China, when it comes to peace and security?

Some commentators believe China’s non-intervention policy is self-serving – it “lets Beijing take credit for any potential successes of these processes, while evading full responsibility if efforts are unsuccessful.” However, as the scholar Kerry Brown has pointed out, the principle of non-interference goes back decades and is not China-specific. In particular, it was agreed at the Bandung Conference of 1955, which China’s then-Premier Zhou Enlai attended, as did four of the only five independent African countries at the time: Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, and Libya (South Africa was not invited due to apartheid), as well as representatives of the Gold Coast (at the time under shared rule with Britain, now modern-day Ghana), Sudan (then under joint British-Egyptian control), and the Central African Federation (modern-day Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe). Because of this principle, in practice Beijing tends to get behind governments or relevant regional organizations to promote dialogue and diplomacy as a means to settle disputes. In addition, it also means that China tends to provide technical and financial assistance to governments, and channel troops through regional or global organizations, including the U.N., rather than deploying its own resources or forces bilaterally (except to defend its borders).

• So how has this worked in the Horn of Africa so far?

In fact, a special Chinese envoy working in the Horn of Africa is not new. In 2007, Ambassador Liu Guijin was appointed a special envoy for African affairs, and immediately deployed to help resolve the then conflict in Darfur, Sudan. China had a clear economic interest in doing so. As scholar Luke Patey has outlined, Sudan was China’s sixth largest foreign oil source, supplying 5.5 percent of its needs. As a result of the envoy, the Crisis Group noted that China’s intervention, including through the Security Council, helped ensure the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to the region in 2008. Of course, China’s links to Sudan have since changed, given South Sudan’s independence in 2011, but China’s overall economic engagement in the entire region has simultaneously risen, especially in trade and foreign direct investment, as well as loans. Kenya’s business environment is welcoming to foreign investors. Ethiopia is generally considered to be China’s pilot for low-cost manufacturing offshoring to Africa. South Sudan still exports oil to China.

Furthermore, peace and security in the Horn of Africa region is directly and indirectly crucial to the stability of international development and trade, which China depends on. The conflict between the Ethiopian and Tigrayan security forces, rising drone strikes in the Somali region, the disputes between Ethiopia and Egypt over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), and other energy resources all make the region crucial geoeconomically and geostrategically. Hence, China has since 2017 operated its only overseas military base in the Horn – in Djibouti, just like seven other G-20 countries and Spain. Indeed, perceived inaction on these various crises can have an adverse effect: Chinese companies could decide against continued investments due to insecurity.

That said, and coming to my third point, this does not mean China will become interventionist, nor is this what Africans want.

During a press conference at the most recent Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in November 2021, Senegalese host and Foreign Minister Aïssata Tall Sall presented journalists with the following announcement: “We would like China’s influence to be a strong voice in support of Senegal and all the countries involved in the problem of insecurity in the Sahel, so that our forces there have even more legal means to fight against terrorists and irredentism, and we hope that China will accompany us.”

This was not surprising. As I have written elsewhere, while peace and security were not initially on the agenda of FOCAC when it started in 2000, in line with the non-intervention principle, over time, with experiences such as in Darfur, this has changed. In 2015, China pledged to support the establishment of the African Standby Force and the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis, plus a total of $100 million of military assistance to the African Union, focused on four areas: first, direct military assistance on a regional (vs. bilateral) level as mentioned above, second, bilateral and multilateral exchanges of high-ranking defense officials for training workshops, joint drills, and navy patrols; third, anti-piracy and mediation efforts and patrols off the Gulf of Aden; and fourth, a security policy that acknowledges that underdevelopment and poverty are root causes of conflicts from piracy and trafficking to war and internal displacement. These four approaches are meant to be in line with African frameworks, boosting the continent’s internal capacity rather than parachuting in.

If China maintains this approach, the recent decision to select an envoy will be a proactive step within the principles of non-intervention. That said, the stance equally means that while the Horn of Africa envoy could be helpful, his or her success will be highly dependent on Africans. Is China ready for that, when Beijing has a proportion of its economic futures tied to the region? Perhaps. Wang has reiterated that “Horn of Africa nations should decide their own destiny and convene a peace conference.” But a dependence on African agency is a risk that other U.N. Security Council members have not been so willing to take.

Source: Dehai Eritrea Online

In its first commencement held at the Fenkil Air Force Base in Massawa, the College of Aviation of Eritrea conferred today, 25 February, Advanced Diplomas for graduates in the presence of President Isaias Afwerki.

The graduates were provided three years of theoretical and practical training in three programs including Pilot Training, Aircraft Maintenance, as well as Electronics and Radar Maintenance.

In his keynote address on the occasion, President Isaias Afwerki congratulating the trainees and parents as well as the Commander of the Eritrean Air Force and others that contributed to the program, underlined that the Government of Eritrea will funnel greater resources, and pursue redoubled efforts, professional training and research in the Aviation and other industries as human capital constitute the most critical national asset.

The Commander of the Eritrean Air Force, Maj. Gen. Teklay Habteselasie on his part said that the graduation event makes it special for it is conducted at the commemorative week of the 32nd anniversary of Operation Fenkil.

Maj. Gen. Teklay also said that the event beyond its historical precedence and meaning signifies the bright future and readiness to effectively carry out future assignments and missions.

Commending for the substantial investment the Government of Eritrea is making towards human capacity development, the representative of the graduates expressed conviction to play due to part in the aviation development of the country.

On the occasion, members of the Air Force that were provided training on Seamanship in cooperation with the Ministry of Marine Resources were graduated with certificates.

At the graduation event that was attended by Ministers, Army Commanders, Governor of the Northern Red Sea Region, and other invited guests, rank promotion was awarded to exemplary Officers, Pilots, Technicians, and Instructors and a certificate of recognition to those that made a special contribution.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

Sweden branch of the PFDJ organization held its annual congress on 19 February in the city of Vasteras

At the congress, the organization conducted extensive activity assessment meetings and elected seven members executive committee.

Speaking at the occasion in which about 100 representatives from 22 sub-branches took part, Mrs. Zaid Okbazghi, Chairwoman of the PFDJ Sweden branch, commended the members for strong participation in the successful implementation of national programs as well as in the fight against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stating that the congress is a forum in which members review the activity of the organization and address weaknesses and underpin strengths, Mrs. Zaid called on the members to strengthen organizational capacity and participation in national affairs as in the past.

At the congress in which Mr. Sirak Bahlibi, head of Public and Community Affairs, and Mr. Isaias Gebray, head of Consular Affairs at the Eritrean Embassy took part, extensive discussion was conducted on various issues including implementation of charted out programs, reinforcing organization and activities of the branch as well as expansion of the organization in various cities of Sweden and strengthening the resilience of citizens.

The Sweden branch of the PFDJ organization comprises 30 sub-branches.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

China has appointed senior diplomat Xue Bing as its new special envoy for the Horn of Africa, a region that is currently troubled by conflict including in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia.

Xue has previously worked as China’s Ambassador to Papua New Guinea and has experience working in Africa, America and Oceania, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

His task will be to work to promote China’s “peaceful development” plan for the region which aims to help countries in the region “achieve long-term stability, development and prosperity,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily briefing in Beijing.

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi announced in January during a trip to East Africa that such an appointment had been planned.

China’s interests in the Horn include its naval base in Djibouti, overlooking a key global shipping route. Beijing has granted large loans to landlocked Ethiopia, which relies on Djibouti’s port for trade.

The region is also threatened by instability in South Sudan, where China has substantial oil investments, and spillover from Somalia that has brought deadly attacks in neighboring Kenya.

Source: Voice of America

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is working with the Ethiopian authorities and partners to provide emergency aid to thousands of Eritrean refugees who fled Barahle refugee camp and its environs in the Afar region after fighting engulfed the area.

Refugees who trekked the long distance to the regional capital in Semera told UNHCR staff that armed men entered the camp on 3 February, stole their belongings and occupied their homes. According to their testimonies, at least five refugees were killed and several women were kidnapped. Family members lost one another in the chaos of fleeing the camp.

So far, over 4,000 refugees are in Semera where UNHCR together with Ethiopia’s Government Refugees and Returnees Service (RRS) and other partners are providing immediate support with shelter, relief items, food as well as clean water. We have also set up protection desks where the most vulnerable among the refugees, including separated children and others with specific needs, are being identified and provided with support.

Around 10,000 refugees are also reported to be living in Afdera town, approximately 225 kilometers from Semera. Others are also believed to have fled towards the towns of Altefa and Dabure, further inland.

The government has identified a temporary site in Serdo town, 40 kilometers from Semera, where UNHCR, RRS and partners are making preparations in order to quickly relocate refugees.

With yet another refugee camp severely impacted, UNHCR remains extremely worried about the safety and wellbeing of thousands of Eritrean refugees caught up in the conflict.

We condemn the attack on the refugee camp and reiterate the call for cessation of hostilities to avoid further destruction and potential loss of life for refugees and Ethiopians alike, and so that much needed humanitarian assistance can reach them.

There are also large numbers of internally displaced Ethiopians in the Afar region, including some 300,000 uprooted by the recent fighting.

UNHCR will continue our efforts to support the Ethiopian government in its response to refugees and displaced populations affected by the conflict.

Source: Dehai Eritrea Online

The world is on the cusp of a new Cold War. On April 20, 2021, in his keynote speech to the Boao Forum economic conference in southern China, President Xi Jinping warned the world against a ‘New Cold War’, decrying the “unilateralism of certain countries”.

The international liberal order that America helped establish some 75 years ago is falling apart. As Michael Beckley, a scholar at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center recently argued, fear of China is forging a new international order. Will Africa get sucked into the new Cold War or will the continent forge a new policy to lift the mass of its poor from poverty?

No consensus has emerged so far on how to fix the increasingly anarchic post-liberal order. The US is under pressure to reassert a pax-Americana, rededicate itself and lead the liberal order.

Others, resigned to the reality that the US empire is crumbling before our eyes, are nostalgically returning to an order akin to the ‘Concert of Europe’ in the seventeenth century. In a re-imagined post-Napoleonic vague consensus among great European monarchies, the world’s great powers would form a concert to guide the international community into a new age of multipolar cooperation in the 21st Century.

Old and emerging powers will preserve their territorial and political status while assuming the responsibility and right to intervene and impose their collective will on weaker states, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In line with this thinking, former colonial powers in Europe are courting the idea of a grand bargain, a new ‘scramble and partitioning’ of the globe into stable spheres of influence. They are using militaristic strategies such as coups and terrorism and influencing key diplomatic forums and organisations to remake new informal empires in the weaker corners of the world.

These top-down solutions to the collapsing international liberal order carry the promise of great powers renegotiating away their conflicting interests and mutual suspicions and hatreds to forge a new win-win cooperation.

New international order

These, however, are no more than solutions for the strong and the mighty. China is also crusading for a new win-win cooperation, but from below. China’s pathway to a new post-liberal order is the creation of ‘a community of shared destiny for mankind’ as a radical alternative to the top-down cooperative solutions that serves only the security interests of great powers.

Beijing is putting its money behind the vision of a new international order based on inclusive organisations of equal states and civilisations working through mutual respect and solidarity for a peaceful and prosperous world and for the greater good of humanity.

However, like the Soviet Union before it, China is facing a new policy of containment, giving rise to a new Cold War. In his new article, Enemies of My Enemy: How Fear of China is Forging a New World Order (Foreign Affairs, March/April 2022), Michael Beckley concludes that: “For the first time since the Cold War, a critical mass of countries face serious threats to their security, welfare,and ways of life – all emanating from a single source.”

The political hostility between the US and China, threats, propaganda and other measures that now characterise the New Cold War, carry eerie echoes of the containment policy against the Soviets. China is accused of trying to carve out exclusive economic zones in the global economy, ‘acting belligerently’, ‘frightening countries’ and exporting digital systems that make authoritarianism more effective than ever.

China is pushing for a cooperative model based on a peaceful and shared vision of development. The model intellectually reflects the thoughts of Indian economist and philosopher Amartya Sen. In his 1999 book, Development as Freedom, Sen argues that development, by its nature, enhances freedom. Peaceful development begets freedom and justice. As Nelson Mandela once said: “Peace is the greatest weapon for development.”

Lee Kuan Yew created an economic superpower in Singapore. Lee’s achievements inspired reforms that have contributed to the remaking of modern China. A slew of reforms that President Deng Xiaoping introduced under the Reforms and Opening-up firmly placed development at the centre of China’s civilisational state.

Peaceful development

Globally, as China’s power grows, it has to provide global public goods to avoid what Joseph S. Nye popularised as “the Kindleberger Trap”. In a January 2017 article, the Harvard scholar argued that America’s failure to take on Britain’s role in providing global public goods when it replaced London as the largest global power resulted in the collapse of the global system into depression, genocide and world war in the disastrous decade of the 1930s.

China has provided global public goods to promote peaceful development. In Africa, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) form a new architecture of development aligned with the African Union Agenda 2063.

As the world gropes for a post-Covid-19 recovery model, China has moved the concept of peaceful development to a whole new level. President Xi announced the Global Development Initiative (GDI) as China’s new vehicle of providing global public goods.

GDI is expected to assist the global community and the United Nations achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. It will reverse the devastating impact of the Covid-19 on developing countries, address the challenges of environmental degradation and climate change, promote green recovery and realise the principles of ecological civilisation that harmonise development and natural environment.

In the Horn of Africa, where civil wars, terrorism, disease and the effects of climate change have wreaked havoc on development, China has proposed the “Initiative of Peaceful Development”.

On January 6, 2022, during his three-nation trip to Africa (Eritrea, Kenya, and the Indian Ocean Island State of Comoros), China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced the creation of the “Initiative of Peaceful Development in the Horn of Africa” to support regional countries to address security, development and governance challenges.

Wang also announced that Beijing would also appoint a Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Affairs to help galvanise regional consensus on peace, security and development. Africa should oppose new cold war alliances and aggressive power politics. But the continent must also be firmly align with peace and development.

Source: Dehai Eritrea Online

A Conversation with Dina M. Asfeha

Would you briefly tell us about yourself?

My name is Dina, and I am an Eritrean-American, born and raised in the Bay Area, California. I grew up in an organized and vibrant Eritrean community. I recall my parents, extended family, and community members talking extensively about their childhoods in Eritrea, their neighbors and neighborhoods, their experiences in transit from Eritrea through different countries in the diaspora, and why they continue to be politically engaged and invested in what happens in Eritrea and to Eritreans, everywhere.

Though I entered college with a plan to pursue the pre-medicine track, I discovered I was much keener on a career in the academy, where I would be able to study the significance of the Eritrean liberation struggle in the context of Eritrea, Africa, and the international community seriously.

I majored in Africana Studies, where I acquired the skills to examine the political, economic, historical, and cultural facets that make up the African continent and its diaspora. Then, I pursued a master’s degree in oral history, which strengthened my methodological research skills and learned technical skills necessary to archive and digitize such sacred, historical material properly.

Finally, I entered an anthropology doctoral program, where I now research sovereignty in Eritrea through analyzing medical and economic mutual aid networks.

What is the importance of studying anthropology for countries like Eritrea?

According to my reading and observations, the most popular and widely circulated scholarly texts and studies on Eritrea fall into a couple of categories: 1) they romanticize the liberation struggle, followed by a reductive commentary on challenges that arose post-independence, rushing to label Eritrea a “Pariah state,” and 2) they unfairly essentialize social issues in Eritrea without contextualizing the geopolitical scene that produces specific problems in Eritrea, today.

To many, Eritrea is a conundrum because of historical misconceptions – for instance, the notion that Eritrea was once a part of Ethiopia – and contemporary features of governance – such as the rejection of cues from the UN on how to govern and a refusal to adhere to structural readjustment programs after becoming independent since 1991.

I use the anthropological method to thread together the historical and empirical evidence that helps people better understand how and why sovereign Eritrea exists and the material challenges of being a politically independent, sub- Saharan country in the Horn of Africa region.

Would you tell us about your dissertation?

In my dissertation, I theorize the Eritrean framework of sovereignty, which was produced during the armed struggle for independence against imperial Ethiopia (1961-1991) and has continued to be deployed throughout ongoing challenges to Eritrean self-determination in the post-independence era, such as the Ethiopia-Eritrea territorial dispute (1998-2000) and UN sanctions (2009-2018). Specifically, I examine the medical and economic mutual aid networks that Eritreans forged in the Nakfa trenches, which extend into the diaspora and back to Eritrea.

My work explores how Eritreans inaugurated a medical framework of a future society through secret clinics in combat zones during the liberation struggle, establishing a set of practices and infrastructures to facilitate the circulation of material resources and clinical care throughout moments of crisis, and the way this precedent structures national goals, today.

To divorce, the legacies of imperialism from our current analysis of Eritrea provide an ahistorical – and thus incomplete – interpretation of Eritrean sovereignty. In this way, I situate my study of medical and economic frameworks within broader discourses of colonialism, human life’s value, and race and medicine in Africa.

You created an installation piece based on your dissertation. Would you elaborate on the installation project?

Along with two collaborators, I created a Nakfa trench installation called “Underground Hospital: Combat Medics in the Trenches of the Eritrean Struggle for Independence.” This trench installation invited spectators to be immersed in the agar Hakim experienced when they ventured into a trench to provide care to an injured btsay/ti.

As the designers of this trench, we wanted spectators to consider the intersection between feeling sovereignty and the act of providing life-saving medical attention in these distinct conditions: narrow walls, darkness only illuminated by a flashlight, and makeshift medical tools.

Who were the “agar Hakim” and their contribution to the Eritrean liberation struggle?

The agar Hakim is an important figure in Eritrean revolutionary history and the contemporary. The agar Hakim emerged out of necessity during the liberation struggle. Eritreans were outnumbered by the Ethiopian imperial army and its powerful foreign allies. The artillery and economic support provided to Ethiopia to repress the Eritrean revolution were immense. Terroristic acts of violence unto Eritreans were a part of daily life, on the battlefields and amongst civilians. Many Eritrean guerrillas were armed with weapons, but they did not have the medical expertise and skills to address wounds and injuries.

After the ELF, the EPLF became the vanguard of the revolution and was notably successful in systematically organizing Eritrean people into departments, one of which was the health department. The EPLF adopted China’s “barefoot doctors” (or agar Hakim) system to address first aid and healthcare access and delivery issues, extending to armed conflict zones. These agar HaQkaim were ordinary Eritreans – adolescents, mothers, and farmers – who underwent clinical and ideological training. They were stationed throughout all parts of the country to provide immediate medical attention to injured people, including prisoners of war (POW). The agar HaQkaim played a crucial role in instituting the social values that animate healthcare in Eritrea.

In your research, did you find any medical innovations? If you did, what can the world learn from the Eritrean medical experience during the fight for Eritrean independence?

I am in the process of finding interviewees who can share their experiences as combat medics – as agar HaQkaim, nurses, and doctors – in the field. Like many, I am grateful for Dr. Tekeste Fekadu’s careful and detailed documentation about life as a war surgeon during the Eritrean armed struggle. In his books, he discusses how abdominal surgery revolutionized fighters’ chances of living when the rate of fatality was nearly 100% from such an injury.

Dr. Tekeste and his team performed these procedures in surgical theatres designed in the wilderness, using caves and shrubbery to shield themselves from lurking Ethiopian air forces that could potentially shell their operation.

I highly recommend all of Dr. Tekeste’s books. But, for me, these texts most importantly contain information about the creative technological advancements pioneered by Eritreans during this ongoing crisis and the way Eritreans’ collaboration produced a social transformation and new ways of relating to one another as fellow citizens.

Finally, how did the medical experience during the armed struggle transform into post-independence Eritrea?

A central part of my research is an investigation of medical sovereignty. Broadly, medical sovereignty can be described as the provision of healthcare based on the local needs and affordances of a society. In thinking about medicine and sovereignty together, there is a common theme of survival – survival of a nation and the survival of people.

Eritrea is an anomalous case because though it is deemed a poor country, the government still prioritizes healthcare as a social infrastructure for all. This is reflected in the budget, which allocates approximately 29% to healthcare, as cited in 2020 WHO annual report. Moreover, despite many attempts to thwart sovereignty, namely, the Ethiopia-Eritrea territorial dispute (1998-2000) and UN sanctions (2009-2018) – wars and policies that have produced very strenuous material conditions for ordinary people. The government continues to make notable strides in healthcare development. At the same time, according to a 2014 UNDP report, Eritrea is one of few developing countries on track to meeting millennium development goals in health.

It, then, becomes interesting to analyze the government of Eritrea’s domestic and foreign policies that make such progress possible, amid the turbulent geopolitical arena Eritrea finds itself in as an African country resisting neo-colonial directives from major world powers about how to structure national priorities and political alliances, or the economy and which entities to do business with.

For the government and the people of Eritrea, designing and shaping society on its terms is a critique of colonial rule, confronting the ugly legacies of imperialism head-on.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea