LChina will appoint a special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced this Thursday, January 6 in Kenya, signaling his country’s willingness to get involved diplomatically in this region plagued by various Conflicts. The Chinese foreign minister, who began an African tour of Eritrea, Kenya and the Comoros on Wednesday, said China wanted to encourage dialogue in the face of peace and security challenges. “We will continue to play an even greater role for the peace and stability of the region,” he said in Mandarin, translated by an interpreter from the Kenyan city of Mombasa.
Foreign Minister Wang’s visit closely follows that of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in November, a trip intended in part to counter China’s growing influence in Africa.
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A region destabilized by conflicts in Ethiopia and Somalia
His announcement also coincides with the arrival of the American special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, expected Thursday in Ethiopia, shaken for more than a year by the war between the federal army and the Tigray rebels. . According to the State Department, Mr. Feltman – whose resignation is however expected in the short term – will attempt once again to bring the belligerents to the negotiating table, amid a lull in the fighting. The Ethiopian rebels, who were closing in on Addis Ababa a few weeks ago, withdrew to their stronghold in Tigray at the end of December and the federal army said it would not hunt them there.
The United States angered Ethiopia by withdrawing the country from a major trade deal, the Agoa, this week over human rights abuses in the war.
Washington also imposed sanctions on Eritrea last year over its involvement in the conflict in Tigray, which has claimed thousands of lives and generated a deep humanitarian crisis. The United States asked Asmara to withdraw its troops from Tigray, where they were fighting alongside the Federal Army and where soldiers from both countries have been accused of killing civilians and mass rape.
The day before in Asmara, Wang Yi expressed China’s opposition to American sanctions against this extremely closed country and to interference in “the internal affairs of other countries under the pretext of democracy and human rights”. Without naming a country, the Chinese foreign minister ruled that the conflicts in the Horn of Africa hamper “the enormous development potential” of the region and that “such a situation should not continue”. He also urged the countries of the Horn of Africa to “resolve various ethnic, religious and regional differences in an African way”.
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New role for China?
The region is also threatened by instability in South Sudan, Mozambique and Somalia, where the government of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has been under pressure to hold elections that have been postponed for almost a year. China, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has been accused in part of blocking the action against the war in Ethiopia that some other members have called for.
Beijing has traditionally focused more on economic development and trade in Africa than on politics and diplomacy. Wang Yi did not give any details on the potential role of the special envoy or on the date of his arrival on the ground.
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