The peace openings of twenty eighteen brought rare optimism to the Horn of Africa. Eritrea and Ethiopia announced the formal end of two decades of hostility, and for a brief period families walked across long sealed borders with an emotional intensity that defined the moment. Yet the structural requirements of lasting peace were never fulfilled. Ethiopia moved forward with administrative, diplomatic and infrastructural preparations, while Eritrea remained cautious, selective and ultimately resistant to the deeper implementation that both the Asmara and Jeddah Agreements required. The result is a peace process that appeared promising on the surface but lacked the institutional…
Author: Selam Tesfaye
From silent ports to shadow economies, to ghost towns, a look at how extended isolation and militarism dimmed Eritrea’s hopes Independence in 1993 was supposed to be the rebirth of a people who had defied impossible odds. For three decades Eritrean fighters had clawed their way through mountain ranges and desert plains, defeating an empire first ruled by Ethiopia’s emperors and then by its Marxist generals. When the tricolor flag rose above the port of Massawa that May morning, the air was thick with exhaustion and promise. Ordinary citizens believed the long war had finally purchased a peace that would…
Throughout modern history there has been a recognizable pattern in how certain states are weakened from within. The tactic relies on exploiting ethnic grievances, turning diversity into division and frustration into political chaos. It is a strategy designed not to reform governments but to render them ungovernable. A clear hallmark of such destabilization campaigns is their repetition of imagery and message. Across nations, slogans, colors, and symbols are recycled to create an illusion of spontaneous uprising. These efforts are often coordinated not necessarily by armies but by information networks, activist groups, and foreign sponsors who amplify small movements into global…
Abstract Eritrea’s emergence from Italian colonial rule and its subsequent detachment from Ethiopia produced one of Africa’s most militarized and least economically viable states. The country’s hermit nature contradicts its dependence on external patronage, and its use of militarization as a tool of governance reflects the unfinished legacy of partition and state formation in the Horn of Africa. This article traces Eritrea’s evolution from the Italian occupation to the authoritarian consolidation under Isaias Afwerki, examining the historical, economic, and geopolitical conditions that have rendered the state unsustainable. It concludes that a pragmatic confederation between Ethiopia and Eritrea—anchored in shared sovereignty,…