Horn of Africa Summit Consolidates Peace & Security

Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed and Eritrea’s Isaias Afwerki shake hands at a peace settlement in September 2018. (Wikimedia Commons)

Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia’s leaders met for the third round of a tripartite summit in Asmara, Eritrea, on January 27. The three leaders agreed to a joint plan of action concerning the economic and political well-being of their countries. They and various international observers view this as a positive step forward for the Horn of Africa’s stability. 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, and Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo met in the Eritrean capital to reaffirm a September 2018 deal and discuss its consolidation and potential expansion. The Eritrean Ministry of Information released a statement about the summit’s results. It explained the Joint Plan of Action for 2020’s three main objectives: secure peace and stability, develop their economies, and boost overall regional cooperation. 

More specifically, it said, “On the security front, the three leaders formulated a comprehensive plan to combat and neutralize the common threats they face, including terrorism, arms and human trafficking and drugs smuggling.” Regarding economic development, the leaders highlighted the need to take advantage of their respective natural and human resources, improve infrastructure, and expand service sectors. 

This summit was the third of a series of meetings between the countries’ leaders in an attempt to support regional development. The first summit was held in September 2018, when a first deal was signed, and the second was held in 2018, with several bilateral meetings throughout 2019. This new cooperation follows the July 2018 peace settlement between Ethiopia and Eritrea that ended prolonged conflict stemming from the 1998-2008 war between the two countries, which resulted in an estimated 80,000 deaths. 

After the peace negotiations, Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel, quoting the the Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship, said that “a new era of peace and friendship has been ushered [in].... Both countries will work to promote close cooperation in political, economic, social, cultural, and security areas.” 

Ethiopia’s Ahmed was elected in 2018, in large part due to his promises to end the longstanding tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea. In 2019, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work, and he is credited for recent vast social, economic, and security reforms in the Horn of Africa. The leaders hope that the newly peaceful relations between the two countries, as well as with neighboring Somalia, will allow for more cross-border trade, boosting all of their economies. 

Additionally, Eritrea signed a peace agreement with Djibouti in September 2018 that ended a violent decade-long border dispute. Omar Mahmood, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Ethiopia, said that “resolving the border concerns paves the way for not just the resumption of Eritrea's relationship with Djibouti, but its wider integration into the Horn of Africa, as this was one of the key lingering disputes preventing that.”

Both the European Union and the United Nations (UN) have praised the peaceful cooperation in the Horn of Africa. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “the agreement reached among the four ministers to work together to restore peace and stability in the region is a positive example for the Horn and beyond.” Some still worry that Somalia and Ethiopia’s elections this year may affect long-term cooperation.