It’s a new dawn for Eritrea as a country after the UN Security Council on yesterday lifted sanctions imposed on the country for close to nine years that have caused considerable economic damage and hardship for Eritreans.
The decision to lift the sanctions comes after a landmark peace deal between Eritrea and Ethiopia signed in July that ended two decades of hostility and led to friendlier relations with Djibouti, shoring up prospects for stability in the Horn of Africa.
The UN security council unanimously adopted a British-drafted resolution lifting the arms embargo, all travels bans, asset freezes and targeted sanctions against Eritrea. The resolution calls on Eritrea and Djibouti to continue efforts to settle a 2008 border dispute and asks Asmara to release information concerning Djiboutian soldiers missing in clashes a decade ago.
France requested the council to hear a report every six months on Eritrea’s efforts to normalize relations with Djibouti, where France, the United States and China all have military bases. The sanctions were imposed on Eritrea in 2009 for its alleged support of Al-Shabaab insurgents in Somalia, a claim Asmara has long denied.
The resolution acknowledged that UN monitors have “not found conclusive evidence that Eritrea supports Al-Shabaab” and declared that the sanctions and arms embargo ended with the adoption of the measure.
Ethiopian Ambassador Taye Atske Selassie said the end of sanctions will open up a lot of possibilities for Eritrea, draw foreign investors as well as bring Asmara back into the international fold.
“The decision will give an impetus for us to look to what the future can offer to the people of the region while at the same time send a message for us to engage in solving current problems and challenges,” the Ambassador said.
Eritrea and Somalia strongly supported calls to end sanctions, and negotiations over the past two weeks focused on addressing concerns about Djibouti.
“There were concerns by Djibouti,” the ambassador said, “but these concerns are not insurmountable. We strongly believe that the leaders of these two countries are willing to deal with the issues.”
The ambassador told reporters ahead of the vote that the lifting of sanctions would help promote respect for human rights in Eritrea. UN officials reported serious abuses by the Eritrean government that have triggered a major exodus of Eritreans from their country.
“The current developments will have, definitely, ripple effects in terms of economic progress, prosperity as well as human rights,” said the Ethiopian ambassador.
Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, and war broke out later that decade over a border dispute. A 2002 UN-backed boundary demarcation was meant to settle the dispute for good, but Ethiopia refused to abide by it.
A turnaround began in June when Ethiopia announced it would hand back to Eritrea disputed areas including the flashpoint town of Badme, where the first shots of the border war were fired.
It is clearly a new dawn for Eritrea. Do you think the lift of sanctions will help the country build up its economy?