The official visit of the new Somali president to Eritrea ended on Tuesday, July 12. For four days, Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud and Issayas Afeworki wanted to display a certain closeness.
Issayas Afeworki, the suspicious Eritrean president, walked his Somali counterpart wherever it matters to him: on the dam site where he himself resides, at the heart of farms, agricultural projects, military installations where Somali recruits have been trained for three years. In the end, everything was done to show his friendship towards Somalia and its president Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud, while the latter was reputed to be rather close to the Tigrayan leadership, the sworn enemy of the Eritrean regime.
However, a joint press release only mentioned ” converging points of view » on strengthening « political, diplomatic, security, economic, social and cultural cooperation “. And a one-page memorandum sets out seven very general points of cooperation, such as understanding between peoples, stability and development in the Horn of Africa.
Because these exchanges of smiles were above all intended to establish a personal bond, which nevertheless seems less close than that which had sealed the alliance concluded in 2018 between the leaders of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia then chaired by Mohamed Farmajo. This alliance had given birth to a committee, which many analysts now consider as an essential place of coordination of the war effort in Tigray.