On February 3, the Eritrean delegation to the 35th Summit of the African Union arrived in Addis Ababa, chaired by Foreign Minister Osman Saleh and Presidential Advisor Yemane Ghebreab.
Numerous meetings were held on the sidelines of the Summit, which was held from February 4 to 6 and which was dedicated to “Strengthening resilience in the food sector and food security on the African continent”.
On February 4, Minister Saleh met first with his Kenyan counterpart, Raychelle Omamo, and then with Algerian Foreign Minister, Ramtane Lamamra, with whom he discussed bilateral issues and the most recent developments in regional political and military tensions in the Horn of Africa.
On the same day, the Eritrean Foreign Minister met with the African Union Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Nigerian Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, with whom the issues of regional security and the continuing conflict in the Ethiopian regional state of Tigray were discussed.
The occasion of the Summit of the African Union was an important test for Eritrean diplomacy, blamed from many sides for the conflict in Tigray and increasingly exposed to the weight of international sanctions. The openings of some countries to Asmara allow a breath of fresh air to the Eritrean regime, but do not resolve the serious ongoing crisis and above all do not provide real solutions to solve the problem of increasing isolation.
The major concerns for the Eritrean government, according to rumors, would now be on the economic front, in an attempt to stem the serious economic crisis of the country, increased by exposure in the conflict.