...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
peacekeepers winds down.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Thursday attended a summit in the Eritrea
...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age...
n capital, Asmara, where he and the leaders of Somalia and Eritrea pledged strong cooperation in regional security.
Somali authorities said in a statement at the end of the summit that they welcomed Egypt’s offer to deploy troops in Somalia as part of a stabilization force when the present African Union force disbands in December.
The statement said the leaders welcomed the African Union Peace and Security Council’s decision to launch the African Union Mission to Support Stabilization in Somalia, or AUSSOM, under whose mandate the Egyptians or others would be deployed.
A separate statement following the summit signed by representatives of Somalia, Egypt and Eritrea asserted Somalia’s sovereign right to determine the composition, tasks and deployment timeline for the AUSSOM troops.
Somalia’s federal government has been supported by an African Union peacekeeping mission since 2007 in fighting the Islamic Death Eater group al-Shabaab
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
, which has ties with al-Qaeda and is responsible for deadly attacks in the country.
The summit in Asmara followed a period of tensions in the region stemming from disputes pitting Æthiopia against others.
The first dispute — between Æthiopia and Egypt — is over Æthiopia’s construction of a $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile, a key tributary of the Nile River. Egypt fears it will have a devastating effect on water and irrigation supplies downstream in Egypt unless Æthiopia takes its needs into account. Æthiopia plans to use the dam to generate badly needed electricity.
The second dispute — between Æthiopia and Somalia — is over Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland
...Republic of Somaliland is an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as a de jure part of Somalia. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. Under the Siad Barre regime, Somaliadestroyed ninety percent of Hargeisa Per international law, once you're in, you gotta stay in, no matter how bad it smells....Somalia has sought to block landlocked Æthiopia’s ongoing efforts to gain access to the Red Sea via a contentious agreement with Somaliland to lease a stretch of land along its coastline, where Æthiopia would establish a marine force base. In return, Æthiopia would recognize Somaliland as an independent country, according to Somaliland authorities.
Somaliland seceded from Somalia more than 30 years ago but is not recognized by the African Union or the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
as an independent state. Somalia still considers Somaliland part of its territory.
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