That the African continent has been war-ridden in the past two to three decades is an inconvenient reality that has grossly added to the famed shame that has beleaguered its economic, energy, healthcare and political sectors, with attendant widespread poverty, acute deprivations, chronic unemployment rates and severe infrastructure gaps.
Then, the refugee crises with the international migration dynamics of fleeing citizens from war torn regions is another curious issue. That has seen multiplied thousands of desperate people from Eritrea to discard their homeland to take the senseless risk of paddling boats on the Mediterranean sea with eyes on Italy, Spain or some other European nation. Deaths, untimely and preventable, have been recorded time and again, to such degree that the more the deaths, the more more of these fleeing migrants want to take the unreasonable risk to travel to Europe. The thinking of many of them, not only of those from Eritrea but also of those from war ravaged Sudan and Somalia, is that they prefer to die while attempting to flee to pursue the golden fleece across the high seas than to wait and die in dehumanising conditions.
The thousands of the war affected people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (though there\’s nothing democratic about the country), are not so lucky to be in position to jet out of their landlocked region in central Africa and take the plunge to Europe as well. And the story of the Congo, is a heart stabbing and rather lamentable story, with millions of people caught in the web of an orgy of unrelenting violence and a cycle of deplorable, and yes, pathetic political turmoil. At the last count, it has been estimated that clearly over 13 million rattled Congolese people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid while nearly 8 million are confronted with brutal food scarcity and of course starvation.
To make the situation worse, more than 4.5 million people in Congo are displaced right now with thousands of soldiers still attacking helpless villages entrapped in the eye of the storm of war. Outbreaks of cholera and other diseases in so many locations in Congo have deepened this modern African tragedy, a disaster that has been drowned by other wars going on in the Middle East and which are receiving more global attention.
It is in the light of this that this week\’s joint announcement by both Ethiopia and Eritrea to officially cease fighting comes as comforting, and inspiring hope, even if it is an imperfect hope.
Since Eritrea officially declared independence from Ethiopia on May 1993, a new and disastrous chapter between the two brother nations kicked off in earnest. May 1998 saw the intensification of armed conflict over borders. The two decades war between these two of the most impoverished African countries have left more than 70 thousand people dead, with many more physically harmed, emotionally damaged, and mentally wounded.
The news given by Eritrea\’s spokesperson Yemane Gebre Meskel that a new era of peace and friendship has been ushered in between the two countries should be supported by all and sundry vigorously with a view to disconnecting from the notorious past.
And credit must be given to Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian Prime Minister that just came into office in April this year for his wisdom and maturity to do what was previously thought to be inconceivable for an Ethiopian leader to do, and that is in his willingness to admit that the hot-spot of the protracted conflict, the border town of Badme, was part of Eritrea. This is in tandem with the verdict of the Ethiopian-Eritrea Boundary Commission in the year 2000, which Ethiopia vehemently stood against previously.
The lesson here for other African countries is that there is always a price to pay for peace and progress. A war torn Africa will always increase the dislocation, the disgrace and the underdevelopment of the resource rich and heavily talented continent.
