OPINION: President Xi Jinping’s “Four Principles” offer a New Peace Framework for the Horn of Africa
Originally published by News – Capital FM — Read the original article →
By Dr Dennis Munene
The post-World War II geopolitics have triggered a sharp rise in state-based conflicts, with the Horn of Africa emerging as a key warfare epicentre. However, these conflicts in the Horn of Africa are not separate. The conflicts in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia are interlocked due to their internalization.
Sadly, the traditional mechanisms for ending state-based conflicts in the region are no longer effective. The usual peace agreements have seldom become as useful as before. Humanitarian crises and civilian casualties are surging, economies are declining, and the regional peace index has sharply decreased. For instance, the current Sudanese civil war, which began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has become one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises, with thousands of deaths reported and hundreds of thousands of people displaced as refugees or internally displaced persons. The influence of some external actors, especially from the West, continues to increase the severity of the conflict.
