Response to john prendergast testimony by afarh negash, in his testimony before the u. In sudan, the neat description of conflict as civil or a secessionary war of liberation is obscured further by multiple war aims. On the 20th anniversary of the eritreaethiopia war, an opportunity for sustainable peace may finally be on the horizon. There are also opposition groups based mainly in sudan with a. The horn of africa, comprising djibouti, eritrea, ethiopia, sudan and somalia, is the most conflict ridden region in africa. Djibouti, eritrea, ethiopia somalia and sudan friday, 03 december 2010 05. The failure of the opposition to fill the power vacuum left behind by siad barre after his flight into exile in 1991 marked the beginning of disintegration of somalia. As a result, the british government cut direct aid in protest at a clampdown on the issue of ethiopia interference in. An analysis of mediation as a tool in conflict resolution. Policy towards sudan and south sudan delivered on february 26, john prendergast made two preposterous points related to eritrea.
Understanding the roots of conflict in south sudan. Ethiopia annexed eritrea in the 1960s, spurring a protracted 30year conflict. The eastern front and the struggle against marginalization. Politics, conflict and conflict resolution in the horn of africa. A human rights report united nations mission in south sudan. Since its independence in 1956, sudan has seen an intermittent civil war. In resolving these conflicts, mediation has been used as a tool for conflict resolution. Refworld is the leading source of information necessary for taking quality decisions on refugee status. This book explores the origins and impact of these conflicts at both an intrastate and interstate level and the insecurity they create. Whereas the war in eritrea and, to a lesser extent, the ethiopiasomalia dispute were seen during the 1960s and 1970s as southerly extensions of the arabisraeli conflict, the eritreasudan crisis is being promoted by outsiders and local parties as a southerly extension of the middle easts secularistislamist conflict of the 1990s. With john garang, leader of the southern peoples liberation army spla, fighting. Sudan denies tension with eritrea amid troop deployment to. Ethiopian war, oxford, james currey and athens ohio, ohio university press, pp 179. United nations mission in the republic of south sudan unmiss since the outbreak of the conflict on 15 december.
Introduction the existing literature on south sudan s march to independence ascribes this development to the internal problems in the sudan and successive rebellions of the subjugated southerners. Pdf with kidnappings, major hostilities and violence the world is beginning to. After making peace, ethiopia and eritrea now focus on. This report, supported by the middle east and africa center at. Conflict prevention in the greater horn of africa united states. Today, their leaders hugged as the ethiopian prime minister walked off the plane in eritrea, he smiled and gave a big hug to eritreas. Eritrea, country of the horn of africa, located on the red sea.
The conflict has been marked by the failure of the government of the republic of south sudan. The sudd institute is an independent research organization that conducts and facilitates research and training to inform public policy and practice, to create opportunities for discussion and debate, and to improve analytical capacity in south sudan. The conflict has grown in complexity, entrapping a fragmentation of factions that are threatening the countrys integrity and social fabric. Revisiting the role of international and regional actors. Avoiding conflict in the horn of africa council on foreign relations. The eritreanethiopian war, one of the conflicts in the horn of africa, took place between ethiopia and eritrea from may 1998 to june 2000, with the final peace only agreed to in 2018, twenty years after the initial confrontation.
Why eritreas border with ethiopia is a conflict zone. In the modern period, eritreas war of independence. The northsouth conflict 69 in spite of their rocky relations in the past, sudan and ethiopia have always been generous to the others citizens who sought refuge in their territory. The horn of africa, comprising djibouti, eritrea, ethiopia, sudan and somalia, is the most conflictridden region in africa. Regional support also comes in the form of the sidelining of riek machar as well as the arrest and rendition to south sudan of opposition leaders. The root causes of religious conflict in sudan between the muslim north and christian south stem from primarily political sources, including historical favoritism to northern sudanese areas, unequal political representation, and governmental oppression and marginalization of certain religious groups. The cause of the eritreanethiopian border conflict. South sudan conflict analysis brief south sudan, the worlds youngest nation, continues to struggle despite the august 2015 signature of a peace agreement. Sudan denies tension with eritrea amid troop deployment to border. Ethiopia and eritrea have been in conflict for 20 years.
A combination of italy drawing the maps in this region and later, cold war support for dictators, has been part of the. As many as 160,000 eritrean refugees who fled to sudan during eritreas 30year war for indepen dence from ethiopiaa war that ended a full decade ago. Conflict between ethiopia and eritrea global issues. Two premises or assumptions have governed ethioeritrean relations of the past sixty years. In late december, asmara charged that sudanese pdf militias were participating in eijm attacks inside eritrea. Eritrea and ethiopia, two of the worlds poorest countries, spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the war and suffered tens of thousands of casualties as a. The people of eastern sudan have been negatively affected by a series of regional and national conflicts. Eritrea sudan politics eritrea attacks sudan, deepens isolation. Eritreas support to south sudan is unwavering madote. The strength of the narrative is in trying to provide nuance. First is the notion carved into the minds of generations of ethiopians by the haileselassie regime that eritrea is, by nature and logic, part of ethiopia. Sudans complex armed conflict has been characterised as a civil war of interlocking civil wars.
Conflict between 19551976 and 19832005 between the colonially modernised arab north and the underdeveloped christian and animist south brought widespread civilian suffering. Sudan could not refrain from meddling in the eritrean conflict, then they had to respond in kind. Pdf the ethiopiaeritrea conflict and the search for. Because both ethiopia and eritrea have actively supported and hosted sudanese opposition forces, the fragile peace process in sudan has been postponed and.
The information has been carefully selected and compiled from unhcrs global network of field. Learn about the civil war in south sudan, sanctions imposed by the united states and europe, and other recent developments on cfrs global conflict tracker. The war in darfur, also nicknamed the land cruiser war, is a major armed conflict in the darfur region of sudan that began in february 2003 when the sudan liberation movement slm and the justice and equality movement jem rebel groups began fighting the government of sudan, which they accused of oppressing darfurs nonarab population. In brief, two parallel conflicts that have been developing since 2005 have now converged, one in the governing party, the splm, and one in the army, the spla. Both have their origins in unresolved tensions following the split. Africa in general, has suffered from artificial borders drawn by former imperial and colonial rulers, akin to what is usually attributed to imperial britain as the divide and conquer policy, but practiced by almost all power brokers throughout history, ancient and modern. The eritrean ethiopian war, one of the conflicts in the horn of africa, took place between ethiopia and eritrea from may 1998 to june 2000, with the final peace only agreed to in 2018, twenty years after the initial confrontation. Why eritreas border with ethiopia is a conflict zone by conor gaffey on 616 at 11. Somalia, the postelection violence in kenya, the sierra leone conflict, the ethiopiaeritrea conflict, the genocide in rwanda the conflict in sudan just to name a few. On 12 december 2000, the leaders of ethiopia and eritrea met m. In the late 1970s and 1980s, civil war, famine, and fear of political persecution forced over a. Refworld contains a vast collection of reports relating to situations in countries of origin, policy documents and positions, and documents relating to international and national legal frameworks. South sudans civil war is the result of a weakly institutionalized state and may require the african unions intervention to find peace and. Meanwhile, the country slips deeper into isolation as all borders are closed, aid flows are drying up and access to noncensored information gets.
Conflict analysis and options for systemic conflict. As its implementation faltered, violence between factions broke out again in july 2016, setting back the peace process once again. Navigating the competing interests of regional actors in. Eritreas independence coincided with the overthrow of the previous ethiopian. In that sense the eritreaethiopia conflict will be found to revolve around the status of eritrean independence. It is an outsiders view and will no doubt, given the complexity of south sudan, be full of gaps and generalisations.
Conflict and conflict resolution in eritrea, ethiopia. Sudan hosted both the elf and the eplf during the armed struggle. Conflict profile ethiopia eritrea interstate war 1998 2000 eritrea became independent from ethiopia in 1993 after more than two decades of conflict see ethiopiaeritrea. Conflict and state security in the horn of africa 43 1981 to resist authoritarianism and brutality against the deprived people. This article examines the role played by various international and regional actors in an effort to resolve the nagging conflict. Eritrea held a referendum in 1993 in which voters overwhelmingly chose independence, and the two countries officially. The report builds upon the unmiss interim report on human rights, released on 21 february. The country is bounded to the southeast by djibouti, to the south by ethiopia, to the west by sudan, and to the east by the red sea. President isaias afwerki and prime minister abiy ahmed sign the joint declaration of peace and friendship between eritrea and ethiopia on 9 july 2018.
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