All roads to peace in the Horn of Africa seem to run through the
Eritrean capital of Asmara these days, with the latest peace
initiative allying Ethiopia and Eritrea looking like it will be
bringing peace to South Sudan.
To understand the South Sudan civil war you must look no further then
the Chinese oil fields, the only such owned and operated in Africa,
and one of the first targets of the rebellion/coup attempt over 5
years ago. The only beneficiary from the South Sudan civil war has
been the USA, for China has seen all of its ambitious plans for
further development of its one and only energy field shut down.
No one, apart from the Eritrean President Issias Aferworki, has
pointed the finger of blame for this conflagration where it belongs,
at “foreign powers” aka the Central Intelligence Agency without whose
$10 million a month for the past 60 months there would have been no
functioning rebel army. Soldiers got to get paid, at least $300 a
month and with some 20,000 rebel military (all former South Sudan
regular army) the monthly nut to keep a war going is big enough to
have to be a deep pocket operation, $600 million and counting so far.
No one else has access to this kind of cash but ‘The Man’ aka the
Central Intelligence Agency.
One of the main demands of the rebels has been to shut down Chinese
oil operations in the country. Gee, whose national interest is this
in? Certainly not South Sudan’s, whose very survival depends on these
oil wells.
Fast forward to the soft coup and “peaceful revolution” in Ethiopia,
whose former gangster government did the CIA’s bidding in funnelling
the dirty money to pay for the rebellion in South Sudan. With the
Tigrayan ethnic minority regime no longer in power, as in “game
over”, the handwriting is on the wall, it looks like the jig is up,
for who can the CIA count on now to launder its filthy, bloodstained
lucre? Not the usual client regimes like Uganda or Kenya, both of
whose economies were damaged by the civil war in South Sudan. The CIA
is certainly not going to trust hard currency strapped President
Bashir of Sudan to pass the cash, not with hundreds of millions being
involved.
So maybe, just maybe, this evil spawn of Babylon, the CIA’s Dirty War
in South Sudan, USA vs. China, might soon come to an end.
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir was here in Asmara to finalize the
peace deal, looking almost stunned that peace had finally come to
pass. As Eritrean President Issias Aferwerki laid out the future peace
for all to see, Dr. Abiy in Ethiopia made sure no more cash or weapons
is funnelled by the CIA to the rebellion. With families to feed the
rebels need to collect a salary and have little choice but to accept
reintegration into the South Sudanese regular army.
Once this critical step is complete a real peace can take hold, though
one should not underestimate the deviousness of the CIA who may yet
find a way to fund rebellion amongst disgruntled elements in the newly
reunited South Sudanese Army.
Still, it seems Pax Americana has come to terms with the new reality
on the ground out here in the Horn of Africa, what with China making
its move into the energy industry in Ethiopia, building a multi
billion$ natural gas pipeline to extract and export the estimated 4
trillion cubic meters lying beneath the Ethiopian Ogaden.
Now that a ceasefire has been reached between the Ogadeni fighters and
Ethiopian P.M. Abiy’s government, again, signed here in Asmara,
Ethiopia can start to use its massive energy reserves and begin to
wean itself from bankrupting foreign currency drains for energy
purchases.
The leaders of Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea have all gathered in
where else but Asmara, and signed, sealed and started to deliver on
peace and economic cooperation. Even the Godfather in Djibouti, who
cried foul when the Somali President visited Asmara has had to sign
the normalization of relations agreement with Eritrea.
And all of this absent anyone from any of the major imperial powers,
strictly an African accomplishment, though China has pledged many
billion$ to keep Ethiopia afloat in its sea of debt – mainly owed to the
western banks.
Real Pan Africanism has been a dream since the end of WW2, where
African countries work together for their mutual peoples benefit and
not allow the imperial bloodsuckers to continue their predations.
With a wave of peace sweeping across the Horn of Africa what is left
is on the ground economic development that will begin to lift some of
the most war and famine blighted people on the planet out of their
destitution. Will an Ethiopian/Eritrean Alliance really be able to
bring the change so desperately needed?
(*) Thomas C. Mountain is an independent journalist in Eritrea, living and
reporting from here since 2006. See thomascmountain on Facebook,
thomascmountain on Twitter or best reach him at thomascmountain at g
mail dot com
