By Gamal Nkrumah and Dina Ezzat A senior Eritrean envoy met with President Hosni Mubarak yesterday to urge Egypt to step in and work for the peaceful resolution of the Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict. "We appeal to President Mubarak to help peacefully resolve the Ethiopian-Eritrean crisis," said Eritrean Local Administration Minister Mahmud Ahmed Sherifo. Sherifo handed Mubarak a message from Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki, urging Egypt, " to play a role in solving the dispute." Afeworki's political adviser, Abdallah Mahmud Jabir, who was present at the meeting, said Mubarak extended assurances that he "would play a role to end the explosive war between Eritrea and Ethiopia and spare the Horn of Africa the consequences of this dispute." His visit came as Ethiopia accused Eritrea of launching a fresh attack yesterday along their border.A government spokesman in Addis Ababa said fighting broke out anew near Shiraro and Badme, 300km west of Mekale, hit by Eritrean warplanes last week. Egypt is concerned about stability, not only in the Horn of Africa but in the entire continent. For strategic, political and economic reasons, Cairo has worked hard to strengthen its ties with African states, a pattern unlikely to change. It features a strong Egyptian presence in all African forums, recurring visits to African countries, close consultations with officials, dedicated efforts to settling inter-African disputes and a closer involvement in the African economy. This week, while in Ouagadougou for the 34th summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), Foreign Minister Amr Moussa reaffirmed Cairo's policy, which places emphasis on African stability, security and economic cooperation. In the Egyptian view, these are fundamental if Africa's 54 states, many of which suffer from ethnic rivalries and economic hardship, are to achieve prosperity. Cairo is set on expanding its political and economic relations with Africa. But this may not prove to be easy, despite the fact that Egyptian-African relations have been especially warm since the 1950s and '60s, when Cairo provided support to African liberation movements. One obstacle is political friction with Sudan due to the sometimes hostile policies of the Islamist regime in Khartoum. There are also "sensitivities" with Ethiopia, an important up-stream Nile country. Cairo and Addis Ababa have failed to agree on the division of water resources as well as political mediation to settle conflicts in the Horn of Africa. Despite differences with Khartoum, officials in Cairo are not giving up on relations with Sudan. The same applies to the littoral states of the Nile Basin. Officials believe that, with mutual good will, existing problems can be contained. But developments in relations between Israel and a number of Horn of Africa countries are alarming. In fact, the list of African countries, including some Nile Basin littoral states, that have close relations with Israel is growing longer. Some obvious examples are Democratic Congo, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire and South Africa. Egypt is also concerned about the implications of new patterns of Western intervention in the continent. Cairo, according to diplomatic sources, would like Western powers to define their role in the continent in a more comprehensive manner, and in close coordination with the OAU and other regional bodies. The US attitude to the Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict may be a case in point. Resolving the conflict is a paramount importance for Washington. These two countries, along with Uganda, are the cornerstones of America's association of African countries allied against Khartoum. A key development was an Ethiopian announcement on Monday that Eritrea faced "full-scale war" unless it accepted a OAU backed peace plan proposed by the US and Rwanda. US Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice cut short her visit to Ouagadougou, where she was attending the OAU summit as an observer, to shuttle between the capitals of the two warring Horn of Africa countries. She returned to Washington for consultations and is due back in the region next week. The main feature of the four-point US-Rwandan peace proposal is Eritrea's retreat from the Badme area, under Eritrean control since 12 May, to its 1994 borders, and the reinstatement of the Ethiopian administration. Not surprisingly, the Eritreans have been reluctant to go along with the proposal. But Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi accepted what he described as "the compromise proposal" put forward by the US and Rwanda. Rice, a protégée of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, has explicitly stated that her main objective is a policy of containment of the Sudanese National Islamic Front government. Eritrea, Ethiopia and Uganda are the three main instruments of Albright's Sudan containment policy. The Sudanese umbrella opposition group, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), is based in Eritrea. Afeworki, who spent over 20 years in Sudan as a political exile, is familiar with the dynamics of domestic Sudanese politics. Eritrea, therefore, is an essential component of Albright's strategy. But Ethiopia, too, is of critical importance. It has 58 million people and the region's largest, strongest and best-equipped army.
