Translated material
Candidate from the Horn of Africa
US wants to add Eritrea to list of sponsors of terrorism
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Fraser said on Saturday that Eritrea was destabilizing other countries in the Horn of Africa and providing safe haven for terrorists. For this reason, Eritrea, having lost US assistance, may be included in the list of states sponsoring international terrorism (currently it includes Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Syria and Sudan). In support of the accusations, Ms. Fraser pointed to the presence in the Eritrean capital of Asmara of the leader of the Somali organization Islamic Courts Union (ICU), Hassan Dahir Aweis, who, according to the Americans, is associated with al-Qaeda.Yesterday, a meeting of approximately 400 Somali opposition groups opened in Asmara, in which Sheikh Aweys is also participating. It is being held as a counterweight to the national reconciliation conference, convened in the Somali capital Mogadishu by the transitional government and ending unsuccessfully at the end of August due to a boycott by Islamists demanding the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia. At the beginning of the year, the Ethiopian army came out in support of the transitional government of Somalia and drove ICU forces out of Mogadishu.
This is the second time this year that the US has threatened Eritrea. In mid-August, Ms. Fraser reported that intelligence was nearing completion that indicated Eritrea was a major supplier of weapons and funds to Somali Islamists. At the time, it cited a July report by UN experts that claimed the shipments had given the Shabab armed wing an "unspecified number" of surface-to-air missiles and suicide bomber belts. Six Igla man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS) were specifically mentioned. Eritrea called the accusations “a complete fabrication.”
Let us recall that in 1962, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia annexed the former Italian and British colony of Eritrea, which ten years earlier the UN had granted autonomous status within Ethiopia. In 1993, after 30 years of armed struggle, the Eritreans separated from Ethiopia, thereby depriving it of access to the Red Sea. In 2000, a two-year armed conflict over a territorial dispute ended with an unsustainable peace and the UN Security Council imposing an arms embargo on both countries.
With the lifting of the embargo in 2001, Ethiopia acquired seven second-hand Su-27 fighter jets and artillery systems from Russia. In turn, Eritrea bought two MiG-29 fighters and was able to modernize six more MiG-29s and 12 Mi-17 and Mi-24 helicopters purchased along with 200 Igla MANPADS in the 1990s. Now Eritrea is seeking 80 Kornet anti-tank missile systems under a 2005 contract to counter Soviet-made Ethiopian tanks. Two-thirds of Eritrea's 4.4 million people survive on international food aid, according to the UN.