The question has come up repeatedly. Why is the United States, the United Nations and the European Union spending so much time on the conflict in Ethiopia and manipulating the politics of the Horn of Africa? Eugene Puryear is a journalist for BreakThrough News and an expert on US policy in the Horn. He helps EOA answer this question.
The Horn of Africa: Location Location Location
“You’re right there at the crossroads of the majority of world trade that is flowing through the Suez Canal. You are immediately adjacent to west Asia, so-called Persian Gulf, which obviously is clearly geo-strategically important because we see what’s happening there and the proxy war being waged against Iran very similarly. Also you have the relationship of the Horn of Africa to the rest of Africa, the other Nile Basin countries.”
“If you have Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia… Djibouti, Sudan.. if these countries all start working together more, then they have a lot of power, both in terms of where they are placed, which means they can affect the flow of commerce which is the most important thing in a capitalist society.”
About 12% of global trade passes through the Suez Canal, accounting for 30% of all global container traffic, and over $1 trillion worth of cargoes annually.
US Strategy Towards Africa
“The reality that has always underpinned a lot of US strategy towards Africa, including very importantly the strategy towards southern Africa towards the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa is that – blocks of African nations that have natural and potentially unifying characteristics from an economic social and political perspective in and of themselves become very dangerous because they can wield power in significant ways because Africa is an extraordinary wealthy continent and has a tremendous amount of resources.”
“… blocks of African nations that have natural and potentially unifying characteristics from an economic social and political perspective in and of themselves become very dangerous.”
Journalist Eugene Puryear
Africa is Rich
Africa has about 40% of the world’s gold and up to 90 percent of its chromium and platinum. The largest reserves of cobalt, diamonds, platinum and uranium in the world are in Africa. The continent holds 65% of the world’s arable land and 10% of the planet’s internal renewable fresh water source, even according to the United Nations Environment Programme
Ethiopia has a lot of influence in the international arena.
“In 2004, when it looked like Venezuela under Hugo Chavez was going to get into the Security Council as a temporary member, which obviously for the United States would be a disaster ideologically to have Venezuela in there making them look terrible, who did they go to? They went to Meles [Zenawi, former Prime Minister of Ethiopia]. And they said, “can you use your influence to get these Africans not to vote for Chavez… and get them to vote for Guatemala?… When they were trying to isolate Iran over the nuclear deal, they were going to Ethiopia to round up African countries to go after the Iran nuclear deal.”
Divide and Conquer
“Their [the US’s] ultimate strategy [in Ethiopia] is extreme federalism. The US wants Abiy Ahmed [Prime Minister of Ethiopia] and the Ethiopian Government to acquiesce to a highly highly federal situation where you wouldn’t be able to bring the centralized power of Ethiopia (as a country which is the regional anchor state) to bear.”
Please watch the full conversation with Eugene Puryear in the video above.
I dont believe the peace talk in south Africa
Could be successful. 1.Why The Us is attending
in the meeting 2. Why America and EU are asking repeatedly Eritrea to go out of North Ethiopia if there is any problem why Ethiopia is not asking it is not their problem, but there is something behind it.