Reuters is reporting that Eritrea’s president Isaias Afwerki is heading to Ugandan capital Kampala this week for a 3-day state visit. There is a wide-spread speculation that Uganda’s dictator has invited Isaias to broker a peace deal with Ethiopia’s khat-addicted tyrant Meles Zenawi. It’s highly doubtful, but if the speculation is true, and if Yoweri Musseveni succeeds in normalizing relations between Woyanne and Eritrea, it will be a big blow to Ethiopia. Fueling the speculation is a “breaking news” by Meskerem.net today that Woyanne’s boss Meles Zenawi has called Eritrean opposition groups for urgent meeting in Addis Ababa on Wednesday. Meles and his Woyanne thugs will be gone soon one way or another. Eritrea’s government needs to take the long-term view and build strong relationship with the people of Ethiopia, instead of making peace with the Woyanne junta that is barely surviving. Read the Reuters report below:
Uganda invites Eritrea leader for visit
KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda has invited Eritrea’s leader, President Isaias Afewerki, accused by the West of stoking Somalia’s Islamist rebellion and destabilising the east African region, to a state visit next week, Uganda’s State House said.
Eritrea rejoined the East African bloc IGAD last month, four years after it walked out on the body in protest at arch-foe Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia to oust an Islamist administration the United States said had ties to al Qaeda.
“Eritrea is one of the strategically vital countries to the stability of the region, especially in the Horn of Africa and the wider global agenda,” State House said in a statement late on Thursday.
A U.N. Monitoring Group report on Somalia and Eritrea said in late July that Asmara was bankrolling al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants in Somalia. Al Shabaab claimed they were behind a twin suicide bomb attack on the Ugandan capital, Kampala, last year.
Horn of Africa experts say that Isaias has become increasingly diplomatically isolated. Leader of one of the world’s most secretive states, Isaias makes few state visits.
The U.N. has imposed an arms embargo on Eritrea, as well as a travel ban and an asset freeze on Eritrean political and military leaders who it says are violating an arms embargo on Somalia.
Asmara denies the charges, and accuses the United States and neighbouring Ethiopia of “irresponsible interference”. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Giles Elgood)