Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki denied any interference in neighboring Ethiopia as he announced a commitment to peace and regional cooperation in a rare public briefing.
(Bloomberg) — Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki denied any interference in neighboring Ethiopia as he announced a commitment to peace and regional cooperation in a rare public briefing.
Isaias said he’s committed to supporting a cease-fire that ended two years of conflict in northern Ethiopia and plans to work to boost regional cooperation. He spoke on Thursday at a joint briefing with Kenyan President William Ruto, who is hosting him in Nairobi.
The Eritrean leader announced a plan for his nation to rejoin the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a regional organization that promotes joint development strategies in eastern Africa. Isaias said his visit to Kenya was “a milestone” designed to make up for a lost decade of no cooperation, adding that Eritrea would support further trade, investment and integration in the region. Ruto said Kenya plans to open a diplomatic mission in Eritrean capital, Asmara.
Isaias’ visit to Kenya — the first since 2013 – is a rare outing for the leader, a rebel commander who led Eritrea to independence in 1991 and has presided over a one-party state that has used conscription to assert control ever since. The United Nations and human-rights organizations have accused Isaias of abuses, including politically motivated imprisonment and torture.
Isaias rejected those claims when asked about his role in the two-year civil war in northern Ethiopia, in which Eritrea supported the Ethiopian federal government.
“Everybody talking about human rights, violations, rape, looting. This is a fantasy,” he said. “Don’t take Eritrea as a pretext for problems in Ethiopia.”
Referring to reports that his troops remain in Ethiopia, he said: “On withdrawal or no withdrawal, this is nonsense. Don’t provoke us to come to a misunderstanding. Let’s assume the peace process in Ethiopia is going on without any obstacle.”
Friction between Ethiopia and Eritrea is deeply rooted. A border war broke out in 1998 and claimed tens of thousands of lives before a cease-fire was agreed in 2000. Enmity between the two nations persisted until 2018, when newly appointed Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Isaias agreed to a detente that earned Abiy a Nobel Peace Prize.
In November 2020, months of tension between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which had been the country’s preeminent power broker for decades, erupted into a civil war and Isaias dispatched troops to support Abiy against his old foe. Civil rights groups implicated the Eritreans in indiscriminately killing civilians and committing other atrocities during the course of the conflict.
(Updates with comments from presidents from third paragraph)
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