Prof. Mohammed Hassan
November 2024
Eritrea is a small independent country following its own path, making progress and commanding respect. Everyone in Africa and beyond can learn from her example.
1° characteristic: Eritrea’s general line; self-determination and Nation Building. Since its liberation in 1991, Eritrea has enforced and maintained its political and economic independence despite all possible unjust sanctions, sabotage, aggressions and wars. This has been and remains possible because Eritrea has enforced its political goals by mobilising the entire Eritreans following throughout the 30-year popular war, overcoming setbacks and finally securing victory. As a result, the ideological and political unity of the people was very high at liberation time. Eritrea was able to build on this momentum and self-confidence.
2° characteristic: Eritrea is not dogmatic.
Eritrea wants to listen to and learn from anyone who respects its general line.
Some “friends” of Eritrea do want to support it on condition that it abandons its goals and wants to follow the politics of the West and its allies in Africa. For instance, there is Dan Connell, author of “Against all Odd”, who has turned his back on Eritrea and is pushing for “Regime Change” as is the cynical criminal Martin Plaut. Such false friends are despicable citizens who are happy to go along with successes of the liberation struggle but feel that Eritrea should be kept within the “international” fold.
They have been unable to shake off their Euro-centrist mentality. Such former “friends” of Eritrea are today the greatest defenders of “the fight against dictatorship”, “the (Western) human rights”, “Regime Change”.. The Global South is less and less impressed by their criticisms.
3° characteristic: Eritrea is a proud nation.
Thanks to its long struggle for independence and the preservation of its independence, Eritrea and its people have gained great self-confidence. This national pride is also found ‘en masse’ among the crushing majority of the world’s diaspora. This pride is something the West cannot understand. They regard any lack of inferiority facade of an independent nation as “arrogance”, which must be broken to pieces. Eritrea is patriotic, not chauvinistic. It wants to talk and cooperate with everyone but will not let the law be dictated to it Never!
4° characteristic: “Good neighbourhood“.
Eritrea is in a geostrategic place in the world. Its policy of self-determination has never left the West indifferent. Imperialism has always tried and is still trying to use any opposition among the countries and peoples of the Horn of Africa to target and try to break Eritrea. It does not succeed, because since the beginning of its struggle for independence in 1961, Eritrea has developed a vision for the future of the Horn of Africa, freed from imperialism, hegemonism and its servants. Today, we should pay much attention to Eritrea’s will for good neighbourliness, freedom and self determination, peace and cooperation, of the countries of the Horn.
We give some examples from history.
Ethiopia owes a lot to Eritrea. Although the current regime of Abiy has recently turned against Eritrea, after Eritrea bailed out the regime in Ethiopia several times since the promising year 2018.
The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP) that destroyed Halie Selassie’s pro-Western regime in 1974 was supported and armed by the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) as they fought together against a common enemy. However, the EPRP turned against Eritrea under the DRG and Mengistu.
In turn, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was supported by Eritrea in its fight against the Mengistu regime. But after liberating Ethiopia in 1991, the TPLF led by Meles Zenawi did not want to learn anything from Eritrea.
Prime Minister Zenawi, while leading the transitional government, submitted his draft Constitution for Ethiopia to President Afwerki. The latter studied the text very thoroughly and openly declared to Zenawi: “This cannot work. This constitution is based on ethnic divisions instead of unity of all the peoples of Ethiopia. You want to lay ‘minefields’ around every region so that the TPLF can control and contain the peoples from Addis Ababa. This project is going to explode”. Zenawi and Afwerki’s vision were diametrically opposed and indeed it exploded in 2018 when the TPLF was removed from power by the uprising of several peoples in Ethiopia. The TPLF retreated to its poor region in the North where the population accounted for only 6% of Ethiopia’s entire population. In its run-away to Tigray, the TPLF had taken much of the National Army’s weapons so Ethiopia virtually had no army left as 80% of its officers were members of the TPLF and more than 60% of its non-commissioned officers were from Tigray.
The TPLF organised three offensives from Tigray to regain Addis Ababa after its fall in 2018 until December 2022. In the process, the TPLF fired missiles at Eritrea to try to draw Eritrea into its conflict, thus making it an “international conflict” and enabling Western interference. But Eritrea did not react and let the provocation pass by.
The TPLF’s offensives against Ethiopia’s capital failed because Prime Minister Abiy’s government defeated the TPLF with decisive help from Eritrea. The TPLF was completely defeated and its leadership was saved in no time by a US operation.
Under US pressure, Prime Minister Abiy signed the so-called Ethiopia-Tigray peace agreement or “Pretoria agreement” on 2 November 2022, without Ethiopia’s rescuer Eritrea. This “agreement” saved the TPLF that remained in power in Tigray. It became a disaster as the TPLF entered into agreements with other opposition movements to topple Prime Minister Abiy’s government. That same weakling; Abiy simultaneously declared his only ally Eritrea as his enemy to keep the power in Addis with the support of the West. Today, the important Oromo and Amhara have rebelled.18 of the 21 regions are no longer under the control of the central government. In fact, Abiy’s regime is only in control in the capital, where the situation is worrying.
Despite this refusal by Ethiopia to cooperate further with Eritrea, the latter is pursuing its policy of good neighbourhood.
Somalia is turning against the West, the “lslamists” and ethnic divisions. In doing so, it can count on Eritrea. To forge the country’s unity, Somalia is building a national army. 10,000 soldiers and officers from the land army, air force and fleet are being trained in Eritrea.
Regarding the complex and highly dramatic situation in Sudan, Eritrea continues to defend “good neighbourhood “. Eritrea does not interfere in Sudan’s internal affairs. It regrets that South Sudan has seceded instead of resolving its problems peacefully.
Thus, both countries have now become toys of imperialism. Sudan’s civil war is of great concern to Eritrea. Eritrea is receiving tens of thousands of refugees from Sudan. Eritrea refuses to “set up camps with the help of the West”. President Afwerki says: “the Sudanese are our brothers and sisters. In the past we could count on them, today they can count on us to live a safe life in Eritrea. We are for the restoration of peace, for negotiations between the parties at war, for national unity against the manipulation of the West.
5° characteristic: Patience.
Eritrea has always been very patient. Both during the liberation struggle and after independence. It weights and weighs the downsides and advantages and then makes the right decisions without plunging into adventure or being provoked. Today, Eritrea’s patience is being rewarded. The world is changing rapidly for the benefit of the peoples of the world. A multipolar world is replacing a unipolar world dominated by Western imperialism. The change is coming partly because Russia and China have realised its mistakes and are daring to confront the West along with the global South.
It was different in the past. In 2009, Russia and China failed to stop the unjust UNO sanctions against Eritrea, dictated by the West. In 2011, the same two powers did not want to stop the destruction of Libya. They thought the West would leave them alone in return. But nothing could be farther from the truth. The West does not accept any force that can question its world power. The US has long since put the ‘roll back’ and destruction of the Russian Federation on its agenda. The ‘roses’ counter-revolution in 2004 Georgia woke up Russia as well as civil war in Syria that pushed for Assad’s fall in 2012. This further destruction of Libya was prevented by Russia’s support. The Western-orchestrated Mardan counter-revolution of 2014 eventually turned into Russia’s righteous “special military operation” from February 2022 to defeat the fascist government in Kiev and knock NATO backwards.
Both the PRC and Russian Federation understand Eritrea’s role in Africa to fight imperialism. President Afwerki was received with great honours by President Xi in Beijing and President Putin in Moscow in 2023. Eritrea’s patience is being rewarded. It can now count on the support of both China, Russia and most countries of the Global South.