By The Star Staff Writer
MOGADISHU – Ethiopia’s young Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed proposed full political and economic integration for all the Horn of Africa nations, urging the restive region’s leaders to focus on their peoples’ well-being rather than their egos.
“There is no need to have different army in Ethiopia, in Eritrea, in Djibouti. I don’t believe in this,” he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where on Jan. 23 he delivered a speech on his country’s progress since he took office in April last year.
He added: “There is no need to have a foreign Embassy here in Switzerland for each of East African countries. We can share because we are poor. We have to allocate that resource to chang(ing) the lives of our society.”
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, which is made up of eight East African countries, is already “working towards” an economic integration, Abiy said, without giving any more details about what he called a “vision”. IGAD’s member states are Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda.
The issue of economic integration was first publicly revealed in June last year by President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo of Somalia and Prime Minister Abiy. Eritrea, which last year restored ties with both Somalia and Ethiopia, later joined the initiative.
On Sept. 5, 2018, the leaders of the three countries agreed in Asmara, Eritrea, to “foster comprehensive cooperation,” promote “regional peace and security” and “build close political, economic, social, cultural and security ties.”
Many Somalis and Eritreans have, however, raised doubts about the viability of the initiative in a region that is in a state of flux and whose countries are yet to fully heal from decades of conflicts.
Ethiopia, the most populous nation in the region, is going through a sticky patch, politically, socially and economically after the ouster of the oppressive Tigrayan minority group that dominated the country for 27 years. Somalia is still grappling with al Shabab militants who frequently target the nation’s capital, Mogadishu, and have the capacity to even attack the presidential palace. Eritrea is anything but stable. President Isaias Afwerki’s grip on power is getting tenuous by the day, as Eritreans fed up with Afwerki, who ruled the Red Sea nation since its independence in 1993, are becoming more assertive and are demanding justice and change.
More importantly, the U.S.-backed integration issue is yet to get the crucial buy-in it needs to succeed from Somalis and Eritreans who are disinclined to acquiesce to any political or economic integration that could weaken their hard-won sovereignties.
Somalis are particularly incensed, as many of them dismiss their government’s economic integration agreement with Addis Ababa as a capitulation to their arch-foe. On Dec. 9, dozens of irate lawmakers filed an impeachment motion against President Farmajo, accusing him of cutting secret deals with Ethiopia and Eritrea. Although the lawmakers later withdrew their motion, yet the Somali public’s concern about the actual consequences of the integration — whose details remain secret — still persists.
Eritreans too are far from being pleased.
On January 26, Eritreans forced the Ethiopian Embassy in the U.K. to take down a post on its Twitter account that contained a map, which appeared to show Ethiopia and Eritrea as one country.
“We realise this post has caused offence and have subsequently taken it down. It was a genuine mistake and we regret its posting and any offence it inadvertently caused,” said the Embassy in a Twitter post. “We deeply apologise to all and have already taken measures to ensure that this doesn’t not happen again in future.”
A Twitter user, Adiam, questioned the Embassy’s real intention, saying, “It doesn’t sound like a sincere apology.”
In his remarks at Davos, Prime Minister Abiy slammed the leaders of the Horn of Africa region, saying their “ego” has gotten the better of them.
“The issue of conflict in our region mainly is problems of leaders, ego. There’s no tangible reason,” he said. “When we are together we can make significant change in our society.
“When were are apart, both of us are killing each other and losing all the opportunities and begging far to the Western world,” he said, adding that his answer to the region’s problems was an “economic integration.”
A day earlier, on Jan. 22, the regional bloc of IGAD and the European Union “welcomed the historic developments in the Horn of Africa”, especially, “the tripartite agreement between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia.”
The joint announcement came after European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica conferred with ministers from IGAD on the sidelines of the AU-EU Ministerial meeting in Brussels.
The two parties said developments in the Horn of Africa region could “provide major new openings for regional cooperation and economic integration.”
“The EU expressed its readiness to accompany this process in close coordination with other actors,” said their joint statement.
The EU, which provided billions of assistance to the region, said it’s “preparing for further substantial support to economic integration and trade, notably in the context of EU Africa Alliance for investment and jobs.”
At Davos, Prime Minister Abiy lauded the reform he carried out since he came to power.
“Ethiopia is indeed undergoing a period of a political and economic renaissance,” he said during his speech.
Asked after the speech whether he was afraid of anti-reform forces to sabotage his agenda, Abiy replied: “As long as the public is behind me… I will make a change.”
Abiy said opening up government-owned companies, such as the telecom company and Ethiopian Airlines, to foreign investors would bring much-needed capital and expertise to his country.
He predicted that in the next two to three years Ethiopia would experience its largest investment inflow, saying that his office is working hard to remove roadblocks to foreign investments.