Crisis in the Horn of Africa: politics, piracy and the threat of terror, Peter Woodward Peter Woodward will be known to many as a long-time historian of the Horn of Africa and particularly Sudan, where his Sudan, 1898-1989: the unstable

Read the rest of Crisis and Development in the Horn of Africa: two new books on a volatile region – By Magnus Taylor »

For several years, combat along the tense Eritrean-Ethiopian frontier has been entirely rhetorical. This changed on March 16th, 2012 when the Ethiopian government boldly announced that it had crossed into Eritrean territory in an attack on three military installations. Citing

Read the rest of Badme border dispute: Why Ethiopia Won’t back down on Eritrean border – By Michael Woldemariam »

Sally Healy is Associate Fellow, Africa Programme at Chatham House – she is the author of the recent report Hostage to conflict: prospects for building regional economic cooperation in the Horn of Africa The IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) region

Read the rest of Horn of Africa: Hostage to conflict – security and economic interdependence – By Sally Healy, Chatham House »

The Kenyan government’s decision to invade Somalia was preceded by an ambiguous encounter that received comparatively little coverage. In mid-October, a supposed member of Al-Qaeda, curiously claiming to be from the USA, was seen to be handing out food, clothing

Read the rest of Who’s backing Al Shabaab? – Al Qaeda, Eritrea? – By Maddy Fry »

The accusations made against Eritrea of plotting to bomb this year’s African Union summit were alarming for many reasons. First and foremost, they illustrate how much the government is willing to draw on other extremist groups in the region to

Read the rest of Horn of Africa: Eritrea punches above its weight – by Maddy Fry »

In April 1992, the Provisional Government of Eritrea enacted the Referendum Proclamation and the Eritrean Nationality Proclamation, created a Referendum Commission and fixed the date of the referendum for April 1993. The two proclamations provided for enabling legal and administrative frameworks that facilitated the registration of Eritreans as well as the conduct and supervision of the referendum.

The first question asked during the drafting of the proclamations was: “Who Votes?” The answer: “an Eritrean”, only led to the next obvious question: “Who is an Eritrean?” The answer was found in an Italian colonial decree on Eritrean “subjects” which defined as Eritrean all persons, with the exception of Italian “citizens”, residing in the country before the end of 1933. This then was the basis for the Eritrean Nationality Law. Continue reading →

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