Eritrea was the only African state to vote against the UN General Assembly resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It joined a list of shame, including Belarus, Syria and North Korea
But will President Isaias go further?
Is it even conceivable that Eritrean forces will be sent to fight in Ukraine? If they did it would be even more extraordinary than the Somali troops arriving in Eritrea to join the invasion of Tigray.
One would have ruled such a suggestion out immediately as implausible.
But think - just for a moment - of where Eritrean troops have been sent to fight since Isaias took over the reigns of power in Eritrea in 1991.
- The Democratic Republic of Congo
- Yemen
- Djibouti
- Ethiopia (twice)
- Sudan
Eritrea even sent trainers to work with al-Shabaab in Somalia and encouraged Ethiopian rebels to bomb the African Union summit in Addis Ababa in 2011. Foreign wars and foreign conflicts are very much part of Isaias’s playbook.
President Isaias is desperate to curry favour with Russia and has - ever since the 1970’s - done all he can to keep on the right side of Moscow, even when it was arming the Dergue forces to attack Eritrea.
Unlikely as it seems (and it does seem very unlikely) there is nothing that the Eritrean president would not consider, if it furthered his aims.
I never consider Eritrea as a state. It remains as a small land ruled by the jungle law led by a mad man. Eritreans have no clue on what a state is apart from the old once who grew up with Ethiopia. The world is blundered to believe there is a nation or state named Eritrea simply because it has a name. They never ever build a state with all what it means. No constitution, no policies, no institutions, and many more that are important for a state. Everything is under a gang leader Isaias. If he dies, no one knows where all the keys are, it will be chaos and havoc. The people became independent to destroy themselves.
Thanks to Hailelessilasse , the Ethiopian government who revived the Eritrean identity and dismissed Italian assimilation In Eritrea in 1960s.
Eritrean government will send troops anywhere if there is money to be made including hell.
Long live President Isaias Afewerki.