Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Ethiopia-Eritrea Border Incident Leads to Excessive Speculation

Foreign Policy published on 20 June 2016 a commentary titled "Africa's Hottest Frozen Border Boils Over" by Michela Wrong, who has written frequently about the Horn of Africa.

Whenever there is a significant security incident along the Ethiopian-Eritrean border, analysts tend to emphasize that it may signal the return to all out conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. We have seen these predictions ever since the end of the Ethiopian-Eritrean war in 2000. While the most recent incident does underscore the advisability of normalizing Ethiopian-Eritrean relations, it does not portend the outbreak of more serious conflict. It is not in the interest of either Ethiopia or Eritrea to resume conflict, which would be strongly opposed by the international community no matter who was responsible for starting the conflict.