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African Scholars Provided African Solutions to Security Issues in the Horn of Africa at the First Africa Lecture

Date:09/18/2019

  The Africa Lecture paves a new way for African scholars to analyze and expound the whole situation in Africa and provides the Chinese officials, scholars and media with the African distinctive perspectives, which will lay a solid foundation for promoting the people-to-people exchanges between the African and Chinese academia and think tanks, said Li Chong, Deputy Director-General of the Department of African Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, at the First Africa Lecture held in the China-Africa Institute on September 17, 2019.

  Based on the rich research and intellectual resources of the China-Africa Institute, the Africa Lecture aims at putting the eight major initiatives of the FOCAC Beijing Summit into effect, which is a significant measure to create an enhanced version of the China-Africa Joint Research and Exchange Program. The First Africa Lecture themed on “Peace and Security of the Horn of Africa” attracted more than 80 African and Chinese officials, scholars and experts.

  “Through this platform, the voices, analyses, perspectives and views of the African scholars on the African affairs, instead of the narrations and judgments from any other party outside Africa, could be introduced to the Chinese academia and scholars focusing on the African studies. This will explore a new channel of direct exchanges between the African and Chinese think tanks and will positively provide the talent and intellectual supports to the building of a stronger China-Africa community with a shared future,” said Li Xinfeng, Executive Vice-President of the China-Africa Institute, in his welcome speech to the first two lecturers, Professor Yemane Beyene Tekeste, Director General of African Studies of Eritrean Center for Strategic Studies, and Professor Melha Rout Biel, College of Social and Economic Studies, University of Juba, South Sudan.

  Professor Tekeste, in his keynote speech, analysed the new climate of peace and prospects for a wider regional cooperation in the Horn of Africa. He pinpointed that the new climate of peace in the Horn of Africa has ushered in a new normal in the region, which raised the hopes for a wider regional cooperation and the hopes for fixing African problems with African solutions. However, he indicated that the proliferation of the foreign military presence and the evolving “new scramble” for the Horn of Africa along with the Red Sea still lingered with those internal conflicts and security issues. Due to the strategic significance of the Horn of Africa and the sweeping transformations undergoing across the Horn of Africa, especially the Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship signed by Ethiopia and Eritrea in the second half of 2018, “it is no exaggeration now to say that all eyes are on the Horn of Africa,” said Professor Tekeste. He emphasized that the transitions in Ethiopia and Sudan, the stalled South Sudan peace deal, restoration of Somalia and the question of Somaliland, the dispute over the Nile waters as well as the spillover effects of the Gulf dynamics are still challenges for the peace prospects in the Horn of Africa. Since the Middle East countries have been the significant players in this region, a new dynamic of evolving security complex tying the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Gulf has now become a reality. He suggested a mechanism to promote the equal communication and cooperation and to strengthen the relations among the internal regional countries should be established.

  “What is needed today is to work hand in hand as friends with common interest and future to ensure that peace and security return throughout the Horn of Africa and beyond,” said Professor Biel in his keynote speech. He gave a brief introduction about the past and present situation of the peace and security in the Horn of Africa and emphasized that the Horn of Africa had earned a reputation of being a troublesome region, but now due to the rapprochement between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the restored relations between Somalia and Eritrea and the peace deal among warring factions in South Sudan, the Horn of Africa is facing a new positive development in the area. He also indicated that as far as the general security situation in the Horn of Africa is concerned, foreign powers have a direct or indirect role to play. But different from the other world powers, China has been a strong supporter for, and good friend of, Africa since the ancient times. Professor Biel suggested the Horn of African countries should enhance the cooperation with China through the BRI to achieve a greater economic prosperity. Only the peace and security can help the Horn of Africa fight unemployment, corruption, underdevelopment and terrorism.

 

  In the Q&A section moderated by Shu Zhan, former Chinese Ambassador to Eritrea and Rwanda, the attendees, inspired by the excellent keynote speeches, had in-depth discussions with the lecturers on how to promote the peace and security in the Horn of Africa in the African own way, and on the new opportunities the future peace development in the Horn of Africa would bring about for the China-Africa cooperation.

  

(Zhang Mengying)

Copyright: China-Africa Institute