"There's no grounds for maintaining sanctions on Eritrea" - Bronwyn Bruton

By VOA

On this edition of the program, host Carol Castiel, and former Horn of Africa VOA Correspondent, Pete Heinlein, speak with Bronwyn Bruton, Deputy Director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council about her recent trip to Eritrea and meeting with President Isaias Afwerki, about prospects for political and economic change in that reclusive regime, which has strained relations with its neighbors, the European Union and the United States.

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The following quote is Bronwyn's response on Eritrea's sanctions and whether they should still be maintained:


BRONWYN BRUTONB (11:32): So Eritrea was sanctioned twice. The first time it was for providing support to the Somali Al-Qaeda-linked rebel group, Al-Shabab.

You know i'm a longstanding expert on the Somali conflict and I've traveled in Somalia at the height of the fighting with al-Shabab in Mogadishu. And I have to say that I've asked a lot of Somalis on whether Eritrea was a key driver in of the conflict in Somalia, I never heard a single one of them say yes.

And what's more baffling is that if you ask Somalis whether Ethiopia is the primary driver of the conflict almost everyone of them will say yes. And yet, Ethiopia has been lauded for its activities in Somalia and Eritrea has been sanctioned. It goes to the extent of which politics have influenced our perception of the conflict in Somalia.

In my opinion, there's no grounds for maintaining those sanctions on Eritrea. And I think even the United Nations Monitoring Group would agree with that at this point. They don't have any evidence that Eritrea is supporting al-Shabab or has in recent years, period.

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