The Eritrean regime is nervous about an Ethiopian retired general

Horn of Africa perspective

Tigrai Online, June 16, 2017

Most of the websites associated with the Eritrean dictatorial regime are publishing what seem very anxious articles this week in many languages including Amharic which is really odd because most Eritreans are allergic to Amharic. No, it has nothing to do about the current crisis in the Middle East, there is a funny story about that and we will come back to that later.

The Eritrean government and its supporters are alarmed about a recent alleged interview by the Former Chief of Staff of the Ethiopian Defense Forces, Lt. General Tsadkan Gebretensae. In the so called audio interview with Addis Zemen news paper, he is quoted as saying Ethiopia has a right to access the Red Sea. "Ethiopia needs to reassert itself as a red-sea power once again." He is said to have made the above statement in the interview sending the skittish Eritrean government to high alert.

The Eritrean websites are obsessing about a statement made by a retired Ethiopian general to the point of unhealthy trend. They have filled their pages with his picture and they are insulting him left and right.

The statement by the retired Ethiopian general is so nerve wracking to all levels of the regime even the aging Eritrean president has wrote a letter to selected world leaders. “Washington feverishly worked at the time, through the State Department, to drive a wedge between the two peoples who have deep historical and strategic ties in order to foment a crisis and micro-manage the affairs of the Horn of Africa,” he is quoted by Eritrean state media to have said.

Why would a statement by a retired military general now a business man create such uproar? Is there something in the statement we didn’t get or is it a simple case of collective anxiety?

We know Ethiopia is supposedly to announce a new foreign policy strategy towards Eritrea replacing the No-War-No-Peace policy, but no one knows the details of it so far. What is striking is if the defense minster or the current chief of staff of the Ethiopian defense forces made that statement what would have happened?

Isais Afwerki always says it is not Ethiopia that is working against him, but the government of the United States of America. He says this to make himself bigger than life by antagonizing the world super power unsteady of another third world country which happens to be 20 times his tine country. “The ‘border dispute’ was a simple ruse as the boundary between the two countries was defined and determined without any ambiguity in colonial times. But Washington feverishly worked at the time, through the State Department, to drive a wedge between the two peoples who have deep historical and strategic ties in order to foment a crisis and micromanage the affairs of the Horn of Africa,” said the Eritrean president in the letter, according to the Eritrean ministry of information website.

Meanwhile Djibouti is accusing the Eritrean regime occupying disputed area in their common border.

According to Al Jazeera news report the Eritrean soldiers moved to the territoriesas soon as the Qatari peacekeepers vacated the area. "Qatari peacekeepers withdrew on June 12 and 13. On the same day, there were Eritrean military movements on the mountain," Ali Youssouf told the Reuters news agency.

Most likely the government of Djibouti would take the matter to the United Nations Security Council in addition to what is on the UN files against Eritrea. The Eritrean regime thinks it could take advantage of the Gulf crisis to take a strategic disputed area, but what happen is the Security Council might see it another hostility towards Djibouti by Eritrea. On top of that the Ethiopian government might feel threaten by the action and take action. All in all not a wise move by the dying Eritrean regime already dubbed as “North Korea of Africa.