The government of Eritrea issued a statement on March 24 where it explained the reasons for its opposition to the adoption of resolution A/ES-11/L2 “Humanitarian consequences of aggression against Ukraine”.
The text of the resolution, according to Eritrea, makes explicit reference to the previous resolution adopted by the UN last March 2, to which Asmara had voted against, denouncing the politicization of the humanitarian issue.
According to the Eritrean communiqué, the text approved by the UN does not address the issue of humanitarian priorities but on the contrary politicizes the issue making impractical the effective pursuit of objectives in favour of people and countries affected.
At the same time, satisfaction was expressed for the initiative taken by South Africa with a draft resolution focused on humanitarian priorities, which, according to Eritrea, avoided “polarizing political content” and would be supported by the government in Asmara.
Finally, the communiqué concludes with a critical note on the level of international politics, which, in Eritrea’s view, is characterized by a push to return to a unipolar world order, “tightening the noose on Russia.”
The note of the Eritrean government is part of a difficult phase of foreign policy management for the government in Asmara, increasingly isolated within the international community as a result of its role in the Tigray conflict and because of its positions of implicit support for Russia in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Eritrea’s vote against the UN resolution of condemnation against Russia on March 2 had raised several criticisms, to which the government has tried to respond with a statement ambiguously focused on the need to focus on the effective capacity of delivery of humanitarian aid, instead of promoting – according to Asmara – the politicization of the crisis and the humanitarian factor.
