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Afar Perspectives on Ethiopia-Eritrea Rapproachment: Two Roads to Assab


Approximately 200,000 Eritrean Afar have fled Eritrea and now live as asylum seekers and refugees in neighbouring Ethiopia, Sudan and Djibouti. The UNHCR maintains that “Voluntary repatriation remains the main durable solution” to the world’s refugee crisis. Nobody would voluntarily return to Eritrea today unless they had reliable guarantees of personal security, prophylaxis from indefinite national service, reasonable prospects for the enjoyment of human rights and expectations of a job. These conditions do not now exist in Eritrea.

Going forward, Ethiopia must choose between two roads that lead to Assab. One road, simply taking the plunder of Eritrea’s crimes against humanity by paying the criminals to use the Assab port and surrounding lands, is quick, although it is a road reserved for criminals. A second road will take longer to travel and contains many obstacles. As the regional hegemon with newly acquired access, power and leverage in Asmara as a result of the transformed situation, Ethiopia could


https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm ... id=3303549