Eritrea might be next failed state in the Horn – think-tank

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

September 23, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) –The Horn of Africa might witness another failed state of Eritrea; a think-tank warns, urging the international community to engage more with Eritrean authorities to avert the likely risk.

The new report titled – “Eritrea: The Siege State” released this week by the Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group (ICG) said that to avoid a fresh crisis in the Horn of Africa, the international community and the Eritreans alike need to demonstrate a new level of imagination and flexibility.

“It is vital that the international community engages with Eritrea, politically and economically, and rigorously assesses the country’s internal problems as well as its external pressures,” the group said.

According to the think-tank, development assistance and improved trade links should be tied to holding long-promised national elections and implementing the long-delayed constitution.

The report went on to saying that following the 1998-2000 bloody border war with Ethiopia which killed an estimated 70,000 people, Eritrea is weakening steadily.

“Eritrea’s economy is in freefall, poverty rising and the authoritarian political system is hemorrhaging its legitimacy in the country.”

“It has become, in effect, a siege state, whose government is suspicious of its own population, neighbors and the wider world. Economically crippled at birth, it is a poor country from which tens of thousands of youths are fleeing, forming large asylum-seeking communities in Europe and North America,” the report added.

ICG urged the UN Security Council, in particular to pressure Ethiopia at the same time to accept the border ruling to prevent another failed state from emerging in the Horn.

The Red Sea nation gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war. It has been feuding over its border with Ethiopia ever since.

However, Eritrea has been deeply been troubled since independence. Following the devastating war with Ethiopia president Isayas led government turned into a severe regime. It further tightened political space, tolerating neither opposition nor dissents. Relations are difficult with the region and the wider international community. Eritrea has also disputed its border with the tiny port nation of Djibouti.

At African Union (AU) behest, in late 2009, the U.N. Security Council imposed an arms embargo and other tough sanctions against Eritrea for supplying weapons to Islamic insurgents opposed to the Somali government and refusing to resolve a border dispute with neighboring Djibouti.

(ST)