ADDIS ABABA — The proactive role China is playing to bring about peace and development in the Horn of Africa (HoA) is a very important step towards resolving old and emerging security challenges in the region, a senior political analyst has said.
Mukerrim Miftah, assistant professor at the Ethiopian Civil Service University, said that a well-planned and well thought-out strategy is needed to help political actors in the region engage in genuine dialogue and resolve their security challenges.
During his visit to Africa at the beginning of the year, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi proposed the “Outlook on Peace and Development in the Horn of Africa”, which aims to support regional countries in achieving lasting peace and security and embracing development and prosperity.
Miftah is optimistic that China’s initiative for peace and development in the region would definitely bear meaningful fruits, considering the good political, socio-economic and development relations it established with countries and political actors in the region.
Recalling that the previous dialogues facilitated by other actors to peacefully resolve the political and security crisis in the region were unsuccessful, Miftah said a third party like China would ultimately help uproot the problem in the region.
The analyst said the little effort to resolve the political crisis in the region has not brought any meaningful outcome as conflicts in different parts of the region remain unsolved.
Noting that there are unfolding ongoing armed conflicts in different parts of the region, the analyst emphasized the crucial need for a ceasefire to take place among warring forces in the region.
“The conflicting parties must drop their guns to have peaceful discussions and China should help enforce these political forces and the political actors in the Horn of Africa stop fighting,” Miftah suggested.
Miftah said the security problems in the region were really snowballing in size, shape and depth and such one intervention would at least play an important role in bringing relevant actors to come, discuss and resolve their security challenges.
Emphasizing China’s bigger role in brokering peace in the Horn of Africa, Miftah suggested the peaceful conference which China set to hold in the near future needs to create a platform where the voices of all political actors are heard and their problems are addressed.
“I think the venture, initial promise by China, is a very important initiative and I haven’t seen such an initiative from the United States or the European countries. It appears to be very holistic. It wishes to see the problem in the Horn of Africa as very inter-linked and inter-related,” Miftah said.
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