Al Ain News April 25, 2018
Map of the Horn of Africa
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto continues his tour of the Horn of Africa to include Djibouti, which has become an important venue for international military bases.
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This comes in the light of the transformation of the Horn of Africa in general in recent years to the arena of diplomatic, economic and military conflict between the major regional and international powers, each seeks to extend its influence in this vital region of its strategic position overlooking the ways of international trade on land and sea.
Yamamoto's tour began on April 22 in Eritrea and is currently visiting Djibouti and Ethiopia on the 26th of this month.
Kenyan political analyst Elias Wangwei described the US official's visit to the Horn of Africa as an attempt not to leave the arena to foreign forces competing with US interests, especially Russia and China.
Wangami told Al-Ain news agency that Yamamoto's visit to Eritrea, considered an isolated state in the region, was an attempt by the United States to take the pulse of Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki, who is living in internal crises.
Washington wants to maintain relations with Eritrea, despite the dispute between them, which came to impose sanctions on Eritrea from the UN Security Council accused of supporting the terrorist youth movement in Somalia, according to the same spokesman.
He expected the visit to discuss opportunities to restore relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia, Washington's ally, especially after the new Ethiopian Prime Minister said he was ready to end the dispute with Eritrea.
On the other hand, the researcher on the issues of the Horn of Africa, Hassan Mohamed Mahmoud, that the Eritrean President is still intransigent in his positions, especially that the condition to meet the Ethiopian call for dialogue Ethiopian troops emerged from the disputed triangle "Badme" and then sit down to negotiate, For dialogue.
Despite this, Mahmoud said in an interview with Al-Ayn Al-Akhbar that there may be flexibility in the Eritrean position if Washington is serious about ending the dispute between the two countries.
Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea are mixed in nature following a border war in May 1998 and halted in 2000 after African mediation led by Algeria, before the two countries signed a peace agreement in the same year.
According to journalist Zein Mohammed, Yamamoto's visit to Ethiopia and Djibouti is the most important in the African tour because the American official will discuss in Ethiopia the future of the relationship with the closest ally in the region in the light of the internal political changes and the repercussions of the US House of Representatives resolution this month called Resolution 128 on the human rights situation in Ethiopia, In which he called for "commitment to human rights, democracy and the rule of law".
Addis Ababa said that the US House of Representatives "does not help" efforts to strengthen the atmosphere of democracy in the country.
Djibouti is seen as a key security ally for the West, hosting a number of military bases, and the United States is seeking closer ties with Djibouti as international competition grows around it, he said.
(Software translation)
