Tigray Opposition Parties Assert 50,000-Plus Civilian Deaths

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Associated Press | Cara Anna — A trio of opposition parties in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region estimates that more than 50,000 civilians have been killed in the three-month conflict, and they urge the international community to intervene before a “humanitarian disaster of biblical proportion will become a gruesome reality.”

The statement posted Tuesday does not say where the estimate comes from, and the parties could not immediately be reached. Communication links remain challenging in much of the region, making it difficult to verify claims by any side.

No official death toll has emerged since the fighting began in early November between Ethiopian and allied forces and those of the Tigray region who dominated the government for almost three decades before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018. Each side now views the other as illegitimate.

The opposition parties say the international community should ensure the immediate withdrawal of fighters including soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, who witnesses say are supporting Ethiopian forces. The parties also urge an independent investigation into the conflict, dialogue, more humanitarian aid and media access to “cover what is happening.”

Civilians throughout Tigray, a region of some 6 million people, have been dying from targeted attacks, crossfire, disease and lack of resources, according to witnesses. Even some of the new administrators appointed by Abiy’s government have warned that people are dying of starvation as vast areas beyond main roads and towns still cannot be reached.

The opposition parties assert that the hunger is man-made as cattle have been killed and raided, crops burned and homes looted and destroyed. The statement was signed by the Tigray Independence Party, the National Congress of Great Tigray and Salsay Weyane Tigray.

Their statement accuses Ethiopia’s government of “using hunger as a weapon to subdue Tigray since it has been obstructing international efforts for humanitarian assistance.” Ethiopia’s government, however, has asserted that aid is being delivered and nearly 1.5 million people have been reached.

The United Nations and others have pressed for more humanitarian access and a solution to a complicated system of clearances with a variety of authorities, including ones on the ground.

“In 40 years (as) a humanitarian, I’ve rarely seen an aid response so impeded,” the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, tweeted on Monday.

U.N. refugee chief Filippo Grandi after a visit to Tigray told reporters on Monday that the situation is “extremely grave.” He said his team had heard a “very strong appeal” from appointed authorities in Tigray and Ethiopian ministries for more international help, and he pointed out that the U.N. works in “northern Syria, in Yemen, in areas of high insecurity.”

The Tigray region hosted 96,000 refugees from Eritrea before the fighting, and Grandi said he had spoken to some who were caught in the crossfire and then resorted to “eating leaves” after being cut off from support for several weeks. Others were forcibly returned to Eritrea by Eritrean forces, he said. It was not clear how many.

Two of the refugees’ four camps remain inaccessible, and “most likely there is no refugee presence here anymore,” he said. Citing satellite imagery, the U.K.-based DX Open Network nonprofit this week reported further destruction at the Hitsats and Shimelba camps in recent weeks by unnamed armed groups, with humanitarian facilities among those targeted.

Up to 20,000 of the refugees have been “dispersed” into areas where humanitarian workers don’t have access, Grandi said.

The U.N. refugee chief also called for an independent, transparent investigation into alleged abuses. “The situation is very complex,” he said. “There has been a lot of crossfire, a lot of violations on all sides,” including Tigray-allied fighters.

Rising tension as Ethiopia and Sudan deadlocked on border dispute

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Al Jazeera | Bickering over contested farmland along the border has in recent weeks deteriorated into armed clashes.

Age-old territorial claims are threatening to embroil Ethiopia and Sudan into armed conflict, as bickering over disputed strips of farmland in recent weeks has boiled over into the most serious escalation of border tensions in years.

The uptick in skirmishes initially involving militias from the two countries saw the neighbours’ national armies intervene – and by mid-December, both countries had massed soldiers along the frontier in the al-Fashaga region.

Last month, Sudan closed its airspace over the region alleging that an Ethiopian fighter jet had infiltrated Sudanese airspace.

Al-Fashaga, where the contested farmlands at the heart of the dispute lie, runs about 100 square miles (259 square kilometres) along the joint border of Ethiopia’s northwestern frontier and eastern Sudan.

For decades, farmers from both countries have harvested crops with little care for border markings in the area amid sporadic flare-ups.

Attempts to properly demarcate the border date back to a treaty signed in 1902 between then British-ruled Sudan and Ethiopia. But the ambiguity along certain border points left the issue unresolved and demarcation has remained a sticking point between the two countries, particularly since Sudan gained independence in 1955.

The flashpoint of the recent bickering was a December 15 ambush, reportedly carried out in the area by Ethiopian militia backed by Ethiopian soldiers.

The attack is said to have killed several Sudanese military officers, and it provoked a rare condemnation from Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who said on Twitter Sudan’s forces would be prepared to “repel” military aggression.

With his country already engulfed in a brutal war in its northern Tigray region, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed responded with a reconciliatory call for calm. “Such incidents will not break the bond b/n our two countries as we always use dialogue to resolve issues,” he said in a tweet.

But Sudan struck back, mobilising soldiers towards contested areas and announcing that it had retaken them by New Year’s day.

“Our military is engaged elsewhere, they took advantage of that,” Ethiopian military chief General Birhanu Jula said of Sudan’s recent military manoeuvres.

“This should have been solved amicably. Sudan needs to choose dialogue, as there are third party actors who want to see our countries divided,” he added, strongly hinting at Egypt, with whom Ethiopia is engaged in a diplomatic spat over the construction of a massive hydroelectric power dam on the Blue Nile River.

Egypt says the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project threatens the water supply and livelihood of its farmers downstream. Thinly veiled accusations that Egypt coerced Sudan into its heavy-handed military approach were largely fuelled by Egypt’s issuing a statement last month backing Sudan in the affair.

Despite Sudan finding itself at odds with Ethiopia over GERD amid seemingly stonewalled tripartite efforts on reaching an agreement on the dam’s construction, Khartoum and Addis Ababa have generally enjoyed warm ties. In 2019, Abiy acted as a mediator between Sudan’s military and pro-democracy leaders in an attempt to ease the political crisis that gripped the country in the wake of the removal of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir.

Since early November, Sudan has allowed more than 50,000 Ethiopians fleeing the country’s war in Tigray to shelter at refugee camps in its territory.

But both countries have made notable shifts in policy regarding the border dispute.

Previous Ethiopian administrations were far more accommodating of Sudan’s territorial claims. In 2009, Ethiopia’s former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi relinquished control of strips of land on the border to Sudan, as part of agreements that caused an uproar in Ethiopia when made public.

Despite Ethiopia’s concessions, Sudan’s al-Bashir made no concrete effort to militarise its border and prevent the odd raid into its territory by Ethiopian militia.

But under Abiy, Ethiopia appears to have backtracked on past agreements and could yet stake a claim for some of the coveted farmland. Sudan’s tolerance, meanwhile, has thinned considerably amid the rising tensions, which have sparked calls for de-escalation.

Saudi Arabia has reportedly offered to help reconcile the feuding parties, while UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab recently met officials from both sides and urged them to sort out their differences.

“The UK is a friend to both countries,” Raab’s office said in a statement sent to Al Jazeera. “We want to see the tensions settled not just for Ethiopia and Sudan, but also for the region as a whole.”

While the diplomatic community’s efforts are yet to be exhausted, Raab’s call for roundtable talks has received a lukewarm response.

“We are thankful for the mediation offers, but Sudanese forces needs to vacate our land and return to their territory,” Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Dina Mufti told assembled press in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, last week. “When this occurs, we will gladly attend roundtable talks.”

Sudan denies it is occupying Ethiopian territory.

Gridlocked, the two states remain perilously close to a breakout of fresh hostilities. Experts believe that domestic political wrangling in both countries might be behind their somewhat uncompromising stances. Meanwhile, the possibility of domestic political foes interpreting any concessions on al-Fashaga as weakness and the odds of provoking the ire of each country’s nationalist camp could further fuel the standoff.

“Ethiopia is reticent about the al-Fashaga crisis because it touches on Prime Minister Abiy’s grip on power and the interests of the Amhara [Ethiopian region bordering al-Fashaga], his only ethnic support base,” said Rashid Abdi, a researcher and Horn of Africa analyst.

“Whereas in Sudan, a new conflict could complicate the political transition and sow divisions. The army can use war as excuse to reconsolidate power and edge out the civilians,” he added.

Eritrean refugees caught in crossfire of Ethiopia’s Tigray war

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AFP | They have survived gun battles, attempted abductions, attacks by angry militiamen and days-long treks to safety with nothing to eat but moringa leaves.

Yet Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia fear their suffering may not be over, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed strains to end a brutal conflict in the northern region of Tigray that has rendered them uniquely vulnerable.

Nearly 100,000 refugees from Eritrea, an oppressive, authoritarian nation bordering Ethiopia to the north, were registered in four camps in Tigray when fighting erupted in November between Abiy’s government and the regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Two of those camps, Hitsats and Shimelba, were caught up in hostilities and remain inaccessible to the United Nations refugee agency and its Ethiopian counterpart, the Agency for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA).

The information vacuum has spurred dire speculation over the refugees’ fate.

The UN has sounded the alarm over reported targeted killings and abductions by Eritrean soldiers, whose role in the conflict is widely documented but officially denied by Addis Ababa and Asmara.

The US State Department last week cited “credible reports” of looting and sexual violence in the camps.

On his first trip to Ethiopia since the conflict began, UN refugees chief Filippo Grandi over the weekend visited Mai Aini, one of two camps in southern Tigray where the UN has regained access.

The camp is now home to hundreds of refugees from Hitsats, some of whom told AFP of the horrors they left behind.

“Most of the people, if you search this camp, they’ll start crying when they talk about what happened,” said Girmay, who like other refugees insisted on using only one name, fearing reprisals.

“Our friends could be alive or dead. We don’t know.”

– ‘They came and killed’-

The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics for almost three decades — it was in power when Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a border war that killed tens of thousands between 1998 and 2000 and led to a two-decade stalemate.

After taking office in 2018, Abiy initiated a surprise rapprochement with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, a move that won him the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.

Yet Isaias and the TPLF — whose region borders Eritrea — remain bitter enemies, heightening the risks for Eritrean refugees caught up in the conflict.

Once fighting reached Hitsats in late November, pro-TPLF militiamen targeted refugees in reprisal killings after suffering battlefield setbacks against Eritrean troops, several refugees told AFP.

On one morning the militiamen shot dead nine young Eritrean men outside a church, they said.

Pro-TPLF forces based themselves out of Hitsats for weeks, forbidding hungry residents from going out in search of food and shooting dead several who tried anyway.

“At first we couldn’t believe it because they speak the same language as us,” Girmay said of the pro-TPLF forces.

“Before we are friends… Suddenly they came and killed.”

Eritrean soldiers also committed abuses, the refugees said, arresting dozens of people, likely more, and whisking them to an unknown destination.

“The Eritrean soldiers caught some people and started asking them questions. I’ve counted 26 or 27,” one refugee said.

“The next day they took them somewhere else. We don’t know where they are.”

Many refugees fled Eritrea to avoid its notorious system of compulsory national service, which inspires descriptions of the nation as an “open-air prison”, and among their greatest fears is to be forced back.

Addressing reporters at the end of his visit Monday night, the UN’s Grandi said he had come away with “a more complex sense” of who committed abuses.

“There were very precise allegations regarding TPLF elements. There were very specific allegations regarding Eritrean forces present — possibly or surely present — in the region,” he said.

Ethiopia’s government is investigating abuses and will try to account for all of Hitsats’ pre-conflict population, which it estimates at around 11,000, said Tesfahun Gobezay, ARRA’s executive director.

“With regard to Eritrean soldiers taking Eritrean refugees, we don’t have any solid evidence yet,” Tesfahun told AFP.

-‘How can I feel safe?’-

Eritrean forces assumed control of Hitsats in early January and forced those remaining in the camp to evacuate, refugees said.

“They threatened to kill us and people were afraid,” said one refugee now in Addis Ababa, who asked that his name not be used.

Roughly 3,000 refugees from Hitsats and the other inaccessible northern camp, Shimelba, have since reached the two camps in southern Tigray, many travelling by foot with no water and only leaves for food.

In Mai Aini some new arrivals complained of poor access to clean water and of not having a place to sleep.

But their biggest concern, shared by some longtime residents, was for their security, with several worrying that pro-TPLF militias could attack the camp despite an extensive federal military presence nearby.

“How can I feel safe here?” said Natnael, who has lived in Mai Aini since he was a boy. “There are many militias around the camp.”

ARRA’s Tesfahun said the southern camps were safe and that progress had been made in re-establishing basic services.

Grandi, for his part, called for a more efficient system of distributing aid, saying the current situation in Tigray was “very grave” and that “without further action it will get worse.”

It remains to be seen what has become of the two camps in northern Tigray that are still out of contact.

Satellite imagery shows widespread damage to both, suggesting a campaign to destroy them, the British-based investigations firm DX Open Network said.

“There are clear and consistent patterns across both camps over a two-month period demonstrating that these refugee camps were systematically targeted despite their protected humanitarian status,” it said in a statement.

Situation Report EEPA HORN No. 73 – 01 February 2021

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Europe External Programme with Africa is a Belgium-based Centre of Expertise with in-depth knowledge, publications, and networks, specialised in issues of peace building, refugee protection and resilience in the Horn of Africa. EEPA has published extensively on issues related to movement and/or human trafficking of refugees in the Horn of Africa and on the Central Mediterranean Route. It cooperates with a wide network of Universities, research organisations, civil society and experts from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda and across Africa. Key in-depth publications can be accessed on the website.

Reported war situation (as confirmed per 31 January)

● Mr Debretsion, ousted leader of the Tigray regional government, who left Mekelle after the Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF) started an offensive on the capital, made a statement. He calls the war in Tigray ‘a genocide’. Debretsion defended the ‘constitutional right’ of the Tigray people to hold democratic elections and he denounced the ‘collective punishment’ for the exercise of this right.

● Debretsion addressed the people of Tigray and also the international community. He stated: “It is imperative that you fully grasp the magnitude of the atrocities being committed by the Ethiopian and Eritrean aggressors as well as other foreign powers. They are attacking the people of Tigray to exterminate them with bullets and weaponized hunger. The international community must recognize its responsibility and exercise its maximum efforts to bring these criminal aggressors Abiy Ahmed and Isaias Afeworki [committing grave crimes against humanity] to an international court.”

● Reported that six young girls were raped by ENDF soldiers in Mekelle city and threatened to not report it to anyone or even seek any medical care. But one of them came to get medical help and fled after hearing they were looking for her at her coffee shop (a small cafe like place for drinking traditional coffee) without the termination of her treatment. She said: “when we asked them why they are raping us, while we are all Ethiopians and brothers and sisters, they said your father is Dr. Debretsion and ours is Dr. Abiy. We are not all the same.”

● Report that women working in the mill house were raped in Mekelle, kebelle 17. The ENDF soldiers went into the establishment, scared the men off and raped the women while they were at work.

● Report that in Mekelle, ‘Ayder’ sub city, women aged 18 and 20 were raped by Ethiopian defense forces in broad daylight.

● A doctor in Axum reported that people are scared to assist and help rape victims. The Eritrean and ENDF soldiers shot people who try to assist when women cry and try to escape the raping soldiers. Not only people who try to help but also people who see the rape scene by accident are shot to death. Because of this, it has become a custom in Adwa and Axum to not give help even when you hear women cry out loud for help in time of rape and danger.

● Witness states that Eritrean soldiers in Tigray abuse Tigray citizens, stating their mission is to kill all citizens over 7 years of age: “You are all an ungrateful bunch of lice. If we followed orders, all of you above the age of 7 would be dead. That is the mission we were given. We were told to exterminate you – all of you. If you don’t stop crying – we will kill the children too.”

● Reported from Mekelle: people observe that Ethiopian soldiers leave the city in great numbers in an ordered way. It is said that they will be replaced by soldiers who are now deployed to inner Tigray.

● Reported from Mekelle that there is heavy fighting near Samre. There is an increase in the number of Eritrean soldiers in Wukro, and there are fewer Ethiopian soldiers, who seem to retreat.

● Fierce fighting between ENDF allied forces and Tigray regional forces reported around the Kola Tembien area, according to TMH.

● In the Tembien area front most of the ENDF allied forces are destroyed and some are on the run towards Mekelle and others are surrounded by Tigray regional forces, according to TMH.

● TMH reports that artifacts and holy books of two monasteries (Asura Metira – recently renovated by GIZ and Michael Barka) found in Atsbi Wenberta district have been completely looted and destroyed by Eritrean troops.

● Reports that four divisions of Eritrean forces (29, 53, 71 infantries, and 49 mechanized) led by General Eyob (aka ‘Halibay’) are now roaming in the Central areas of Tigray and they are looting and killing civilians.

● Eritrean Brigadier Gen. Eyob “Halibay” Fessahaye was jailed for alleged corruption in the early 1990s; after having been in jail for five years (during which time he carried out two attempts of suicide), he was released and eventually promoted to command the Eritrean Special Forces, Esayas elite commandos, and was in charge of coordination with the Office of President Esayas.

● A list of names has been compiled of 166 Tigrayan civilians allegedly killed by Eritrean troops in Aksum across different villages in an indiscriminate killing in what is called a ‘door-to-door’ search and shooting spree as well as from an artillery shelling by Eritrean troops invading on Axum across different villages. The list shows 158 men (6 priests), 8 women and 2 unnamed relatives. A list is published of 1031 ‘verified’ names of civilians killed in Tigray. The list is available on https://tghat.com/victim-list/

● Hatespeech published on 27 October 2020 by an Amhara activist on tiktok – a week before the war in Tigray started, states the intention of a collaborative action between Eritrea and Amhara to overthrow Tigray and divide Tigray between the two parties.

● The translation of the hate speech message reads: “We will deinstall/disintegrate and give half of it [Tigray] to Eritrea. We will bring Axum to Amhara and give the rest to others [Eritrea]. Where the fuck will you go after? If Amhara is strong, we can do this. We can divide Tigray for the two of us. We bring Axum to us and the other we give to Asmara. Then Tigrayans will be eliminated entirely after that. It is over, whether you like it or not. If you don’t submit to the feet, to what you deserve, you will see, we will do this. You will return Axum [to Amhara], and we will give the other part to Eritrea. And we can, we can do this, it’s only about time.”

● Unconfirmed reports in social media that the Ethiopian Telecom server in Tigray (Mekelle) has been transferred to Asmara, Eritrea. This is confirmed in the location registered on-line (Maekel region).

Reported Regional situation (as confirmed per 31 January)

● Three Sudanese merchants have been kidnapped by an Ethiopian militia group consisting of seven men in Gadarif state. The militia raiding party is now demanding a ransom of 3.6 million Sudanese pounds after seizing the men 7km inside the Fashaga triangle.

Reported International situation (as confirmed per 31 January)

● Eritrean psycho-therapist and human rights activist Selam Kidane analyses the background to the “cruelties” committed by the Eritrean troops in Tigray: “Many around the world are baffled by the accounts of cruelty that is being perpetrated by the Eritrean army as consistently reported from victims across Tigray.”

● Kidane states: “It has been sudden, totally unexpected and extremely brutal, perpetrated against people who are to all intents and purposes (innocent) kin. Victims ask ‘why?’ Fellow Eritreans are baffled and many in the international community ask ‘how?’ How is it possible that a young army of mostly conscripts who were forcibly recruited from across Eritrea perpetrate a level of cruelty that is seldom seen?”

Disclaimer:
All information in this situation report is presented as a fluid update report, as to the best knowledge and understanding of the authors at the moment of publication. EEPA does not claim that the information is correct but verifies to the best of ability within the circumstances. Publication is weighed on the basis of interest to understand potential impacts of events (or perceptions of these) on the situation. Check all information against updates and other media. EEPA does not take responsibility for the use of the information or impact thereof. All information reported originates from third parties and the content of all reported and linked information remains the sole responsibility of these third parties. Report to info@eepa.be any additional information and corrections.

Links of interest

Ethiopia updates debt sustainability assessment with IMF help

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NAIROBI (Reuters) – Ethiopia is updating its debt sustainability assessment with International Monetary Fund help and will then talk to official creditors, its finance ministry said in an apparent attempt to allay market concerns over a possible restructuring of sovereign debt.

On Friday, a Finance Ministry official told Reuters that Ethiopia planned to seek a restructuring of its sovereign debt under a new G20 common framework and was examining all available options.

This pushed its government bonds to their biggest ever daily fall and analysts said restructuring concerns could spill over to hit other borrowers.

The ministry said in a statement on Monday that once the discussions with official creditors were complete, it will inform other creditors of the need for broader debt treatment.

Read More “EU suspends Ethiopian Budget Support Over Tigray Crisis” 

It also said it was confident that possible implementation of debt treatment under a new G2 framework will address vulnerabilities and preserve long-term access to international financial markets.

Under the new G20 framework, debtor countries are expected to seek an IMF programme to put their economies onto a firmer footing and negotiate a debt reduction from both public and private creditors.

Read About “Tigray War”

Ethiopia has a $1 billion dollar bond outstanding, though only $66 million worth of interest payments on the issue are coming due this year.

The brutal dictatorship the world keeps ignoring

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The Washingtonpost | Adam Taylor | June 12, 2015 |  >>> 

On Monday, the United Nations released the results of a year-long investigation into human rights in Eritrea. What it found was horrific. Detailing “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations,” the U.N. commission of inquiry argued that Eritrea was operating a totalitarian government with no accountability and no rule of law.

“The commission also finds that the violations in the areas of extrajudicial executions, torture (including sexual torture), national service and forced labor may constitute crimes against humanity,” the report said.

However, it appears the report failed to produce any mainstream outrage. Unlike similar U.N. reports on alleged crimes against humanity in North Korea, or online criticism of human rights abuses in places such as Saudi Arabia or Qatar, the horrific accusations against Eritrea didn’t produce a viral outcry.

Why not? It certainly doesn’t seem to be because of the severity of the accusations. Crimes against humanity are pretty much as serious as you can get, and it’s hard to read the United Nations’ full report and not be shocked.

It’s hard to imagine now, but hopes were initially high for Eritrea in 1993 after it gained independence from Ethiopia after 30 years of civil war. Since then, however, President Isaias Afwerki has clamped down and allowed no room for an opposition. The U.N. report described a Stasi-like police state that leaves Eritreans in constant fear that they are being monitored.

“When I am in Eritrea, I feel that I cannot even think because I am afraid that people can read my thoughts and I am scared,” one witness told the U.N. inquiry.

The system leads to arbitrary arrests and detention, with torture and even enforced disappearances a part of life in Eritrea, the U.N. probe found, and even those who commit no perceived crime often end up in arduous and indefinite national service that may amount to forced labor. Escape is not a realistic option for many: Those who attempt to flee the country are considered “traitors,” and there is a shoot-to-kill policy on the border, the report said.

It’s also worth noting the significant effort and risk put into creating the report: The Eritrean government refused to allow the United Nations access to the country to investigate, so the U.N. team interviewed more than 550 witnesses in third countries and accepted 160 written submissions. Many approached by the United Nations declined to give testimony, even anonymously, citing a justifiable fear of reprisal.

Still, experts don’t seem too surprised at the lack of outrage generated by the report. “Clearly, Eritrea doesn’t capture the imagination, or rouse the conscience of Americans, much in the way North Korea does,” Jeffrey Smith, an advocacy officer at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, explained. “President Afwerki, while unquestionably a chronic human rights abuser and eccentric despot, isn’t portrayed by the American media in the same way that Kim Jong Un is.”

“North Korea also makes headlines for other reasons — namely its nuclear ambitions and the ongoing threat it poses to regional stability in East Asia,” he added. “Similarly, while Eritrea is certainly a police state similar to North Korea in many ways, it’s largely kept out of the headlines because Africa in general doesn’t feature highly on the agenda of policymakers here in the United States.”

The fact is, while the scope and authority of the U.N. report lent its allegations an added weight, academics and human rights researchers had long written similar things about the Eritrean state without a significant mainstream response in America or Europe.

In 2014, for instance Human Rights Watch called Eritrea “among the most closed countries in the world” and pointed to “indefinite military service, torture, arbitrary detention, and severe restrictions on freedoms of expression, association, and religion.” Reporters Without Borders has repeatedly ranked it as the worst country in the world for press freedom — worse even than North Korea.

“The U.N. report? We knew it already,” said Ismail Einashe, a Somali-British journalist who works with Eritrean migrants. “Too little, too late.”

Despite this, some reports on the country ignore this and focus on another aspect of Eritrea: Its unlikely tourism sector. International isolation, a history as an Italian colony and reported Qatari investment may have made Eritrea a unique if distasteful vacation destination: As one travel blogger put it last year, the capital of “Asmara felt much more like Naples than North Korea.”

Sara Dorman, an expert in African politics at Edinburgh University, doesn’t think much of either comparison.

“I don’t think it’s particularly helpful,” she said of the country’s reputation as the “North Korea of Africa.” At the same time, she stressed that Eritrea really does deserve to be seen as a special case. “As somebody who studies authoritarian regimes elsewhere in Africa, the Eritrean regime’s control over its population is qualitatively different than other African states,” Dorman said, before pointing to features such as the scale of Eritrea’s intelligence service and the practice of punishing entire families for the crimes of one member.

There are plenty of historical arguments for why the world should pay more attention to what’s happening in Eritrea. Former colonial rulers Italy and Britain have an obvious legacy there, and so does the United States, which allowed Ethiopia to incorporate Eritrea with the aim of keeping the U.S. Kagnew Station military base in the country. In addition, Eritrea has a difficult recent history with its East African neighbors: It’s currently under U.N. sanctions for supporting al-Shabab, the Somali Islamist group, and others in the region.

But one important reason to pay attention has become an unavoidable reality for Europe. Eritreans make up a large share of the migrants crossing the Mediterranean in flimsy boats to seek asylum in Europe: More than 22 percent of those who made the journey in 2014 were from the country, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, second only to Syrians. They flee not because of a civil war like that in Syria, but because of the immense restrictions the Eritrean state puts on their lives. As one escaped Eritrean put it, life there is a “psychological prison.”

Despite this, a number of European nations have recently tightened the restrictions on Eritrean migrants, many citing a Danish immigration report from last November that prompted criticism from human rights groups. The European Union is also considering increasing the amount of aid it sends to Eritrea via the European Development Fund. Experts like Dorman hope that the U.N. report may lead some in Europe to reconsider.

“If organizations don’t take note of this report, we really have to wonder about how they make these decisions,” she said.

Still, even if they don’t, the report does have one very vocal audience: The Eritrean government and pro-government media. In a statement published on Tuesday, Eritrea called the U.N. report a”cynical political travesty” that was an attack “not so much on the government, but on a civilized people and society who cherish human values and dignity.”

Finnish EU envoy to investigate ‘dire’ Ethiopia war

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EU Observer | The security situation in Ethiopia was “dire”, as Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto prepared to travel to the region on an EU fact-finding mission.

Finnish FM

Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto | Wikimedia Commons

“Nearly three months after the start of the conflict … the security situation in Tigray [a region of Ethiopia] remains dire, with reports of localised fighting especially in rural areas,” Haavisto told EUobserver.

“There is news circulating that hundreds of thousands of people have yet to receive [humanitarian] assistance,” he said.

But “access to the affected regions remains limited due to the challenging security environment and bureaucratic obstacles,” he added.

War broke out last year between the government of prime minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a local power which defied his rule.

The TPLF leader, Debretsion Gebremichael, said on Sunday (1 February) that the Ethiopian army was guilty of “genocide” and “massacres”.

He also said three foreign powers were fighting on Ethiopia’s side, while urging the international community to investigate “the atrocities” he spoke of.

An Ethiopian government spokeswoman told the BBC that Gebremichael’s words were “the delusions of a criminal clique” and accused the TPLF of “horrendous crimes” in return.

Ethiopia has also denied that Eritrean and Somalian forces, as well as Emirati drones, were fighting on its side.

But the US state department has confirmed that Eritrea was involved.

And Tigrayans who fled to neighbouring Sudan have told Human Rights Watch, an NGO, that Ethiopian forces were guilty of indiscriminate shelling and extrajudicial killings.

For his part, Finland’s Haavisto said: “The regional impacts of the Tigray conflict are of growing concern”.

“Reports indicate that more than 58,000 refugees have fled to Sudan and tensions in the border areas are growing dangerously,” he added.

The Nordic diplomat planned to go to “Ethiopia and its neighbouring regions” in the “next few weeks”, he said, after EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell tasked him with the mission last week.

Haavisto is to travel with Alexander Rondos, an EU special representative for the Horn of Africa.

An internal EU report, last November, said Europe feared “the unravelling of the Ethiopian state” and the creation of millions of refugees if the war got worse.

And it feared instability could spread to neighbouring Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia.

The Ethiopia conflict is just one of several in the EU’s southern neighbourhood, including ones in Libya, Israel, the Sahel, and Syria.

Meanwhile, Europe’s eastern flank is also becoming increasingly volatile.

Warfare recently erupted in Azerbaijan and goes on unabated in eastern Ukraine.

A political crisis in Belarus and mass-scale demonstrations in Russia have also posed questions about the future of the ruling regimes there.

Russia diplomacy
Russia, on Sunday, arrested another 4,000 people in nationwide protests calling on authorities to free opposition hero Alexei Navalny.

“Russian citizens’ right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression should be respected,” Haavisto told EUobserver.

Borrell, the EU top diplomat, is himself going to Moscow at the end of this week to urge Navalny’s release and to discuss “strategic” issues.

And Haavisto said it was important for the EU to keep up Russia diplomacy despite the deteriorating ties.

He also highlighted the need for “people-to-people contacts” between ordinary Russians and Europeans, “which have taken a big setback from the Covid pandemic”.

“We have a lot of experience on this, as Finland issues the highest number of Schengen visas in Russia,” Haavisto said, referring to Europe’s ‘Schengen’ free-travel area.

Through Eritrea, China Quietly Makes Inroads Near the Red Sea

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The Diplomat | China is finding an eager partner in Eritrea, an autocratic state generally overlooked entirely by world powers.

As Iran continues to dominate headlines across the Western world, China’s far quieter quest to influence Africa and Asia has escaped the news media’s attention of late. The many examples of this Chinese strategy include the world power’s relationship with Eritrea, a country on the Horn of Africa that rarely features in geopolitical discussions. Nonetheless, officials in Beijing intend to turn what some analysts still label “Africa’s North Korea” into a centerpiece of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s costly economic megaproject inspired by the Silk Road.

In May 2019, Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in Beijing to laud what Eritrean officials dubbed “a healthy and strong partnership for the benefit of their two peoples.” Just five months later, Chinese Ambassador to Eritrea Yang Zigang said in an interview with Eritrea’s state-owned media that “China has consistently supported Eritrea’s nation-building endeavors by providing Eritrea with many kinds of assistance.”

The months of diplomatic niceties between China and Eritrea preceded a much more substantive development barely noticed by Western news agencies. In early November, the China Shanghai Corporation for Foreign Economic and Technological Cooperation — known as “China SFECO Group” — began building a 134-kilometer road in coordination with ranking Eritrean officials, an initiative heralded by Yang. He has displayed a keen interest in Eritrean infrastructure, noting on the embassy webpage, “Eritrea is endowed with two great natural harbors, Massawa and Assab.”

Eritrea has long expressed its enthusiasm for the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s bid to expand its sphere of influence by investing in countries across the Global South. A representative from Eritrea’s ruling party traveled to Beijing’s Belt and Road Forum in 2017. The Eritrean Information Ministry, meanwhile, praised China’s effort in 2019, calling it a step toward “open, inclusive, and balanced regional economic cooperation” and “integration of markets.”

t first glance, a little-known one-party state with an ailing economy would seem an odd choice for Chinese investment. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has only succeeded at turning his country into a pariah state during 27 years of brutal rule, and the World Bank Group considers Eritrea “one of the least developed countries in the world.” Even so, Chinese President Xi Jinping likely sees his investment in Afwerki’s regime as an opportunity to secure an ally on the Red Sea.

Chinese tacticians have been eyeing the strategic region for some time. In early 2016, China concluded a deal with Djibouti, one of Eritrea’s neighbors on the Red Sea, to construct a military base – China’s first overseas military facility. The much-discussed Chinese outpost, which itself borders a similar American facility, became operational a year later. China has deployed soldiers throughout East Africa, even sending peacekeepers to secure Chinese-staffed oil wells in South Sudan.

Chinese-Eritrean relations appear focused on economics for the time being, but the possibility of militarization looms on the horizon. China and Eritrea cooperate in a variety of sectors, including energy and public health. The East Asian world power has a long history with its East African partner, arming Eritrea not only during its 30-year war of independence from Ethiopia but also during its second war with Ethiopia in the late 1990s. In more recent years, China has offered to mediate territorial disputes between Eritrea and Ethiopia, a sign of China’s wider ambitions.

In Africa and Eritrea in particular, China’s distinct foreign policy has given it a critical advantage over its Western rivals. Xi is more than willing to ignore Afwerki’s well-known abuses of human rights, such as conscripting tens of thousands of Eritreans and forcing them into what the United Nations terms “slave-like” labor. Though Eritrea has a population of just 6 million, only Syrian applicants for asylum outnumber Eritreans in Europe. Fifty thousand live in Germany alone.

While some Western countries have tried to engage with Eritrea in the last few years, they have faced backlash. European officials suffered significant embarrassment when The New York Times revealed that an Eritrean project funded by the European Union and facilitated by the UN relied on the labor of conscripts. Many European countries view Eritrea as a source of mass migration and a key front in their bid to stop it. Unlike China, which Afwerki has tried to court through his emphasis on Eritrea’s “strategic location,” Europe seems to have few long-term goals there.

The United States, China’s main rival in Africa, has indicated little interest in Eritrea. The State Department has admitted that “[t]ensions related to the ongoing government detention of political dissidents and others, the closure of the independent press, limits on civil liberties, and reports of human rights abuses contributed to decades of strained U.S.–Eritrean relations.”

As long as China keeps overlooking Eritrea’s dismal record on human rights, the two countries’ relationship seems likely to blossom. Despite a remarkable increase in goodwill toward the East African autocracy following Eritrea’s conclusion of a peace treaty with its longtime adversaries in Ethiopia, Afwerki has few friends in the international community. For its part, China has long stated its reluctance to interfere with or even comment on other countries’ internal affairs. That position has endeared Beijing to autocrats around the world.

For now, China only has one opponent in the race to establish a sphere of influence in Eritrea: the United Arab Emirates. The UAE operates an air base and a military port in the East African country in addition to its military base in Somalia. In a sign of China’s growing reach, however, the UAE is participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. Considering that China’s ambassador to the Middle Eastern regional power vaunted their relationship as “at its best period in history” in 2019, the prospect of a confrontation between the two countries over Eritrea seems dim.

SFECO Group’s project in Eritrea marks a new level of cooperation with China. As American and European officials turn their attention to the Middle East, China’s staying power in the Horn of Africa is growing. The Chinese presence in Djibouti sparked alarm across the West. In Eritrea, though, China is reaping the benefits of other world powers’ lack of interest in a rogue state. Unlike its Western counterparts, China has its sights set on the Red Sea.

China’s second Africa policy paper

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China Daily | December 2015 |

JOHANNESBURG — The Chinese government on Friday released its second Africa policy paper as Chinese President Xi Jinping and African leaders gathered here for the second summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

The full text of the policy paper is as follows:

The Chinese Government published its first Africa policy paper in 2006. Over the past decade, the policy has been carried out fully and effectively, playing an important guiding role in the all-round development of China-Africa relations. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The Second FOCAC Summit will be held in South Africa in December. As the first China-Africa summit to be hosted on the African continent, it will be a landmark event conducive to strengthening China-Africa unity and spearheading China-Africa cooperation.

Against this backdrop, the Chinese government wishes, with release of its second Africa policy paper, to further clarify China’s determination and goodwill to develop friendly and cooperative relations with Africa and expound the new vision, approach and measures of China’s Africa policy under the new circumstances with the aim of guiding the multi-faceted exchanges and cooperation between China and Africa in the years to come.

Part I. Establishing and Developing Comprehensive Strategic and Cooperative China-Africa Partnership and Consolidating and Bolstering the Community of Shared Future between China and Africa

China and Africa have always belonged to a community of shared future. Over the past five decades and more, they have always been good friends who stand together through thick and thin, good partners who share weal and woe, and good brothers who fully trust each other despite changes in the international landscape. The traditional friendship between China and Africa is deeply rooted in people’s minds and has become an invaluable asset for both. China and Africa have long valued sincerity, friendship and equality, which constitute the underlying rationale for China-Africa relations to grow stronger with time. Based on this tradition, China and Africa will be committed to mutually beneficial cooperation and common development under the new circumstances, adding new substance and injecting inexhaustible impetus to China-Africa relations.

In 2006, the Chinese government proposed a new type of China-Africa strategic partnership featuring political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchange. In the past decade, China and Africa jointly formulated and implemented a series of major measures to deepen cooperation, which greatly promoted the rapid development of their friendly and cooperative ties across the board. Political mutual trust between China and Africa has been strengthened. Their coordination and cooperation in international and regional affairs have become closer. Their pragmatic cooperation has borne abundant fruit. China has been Africa’s largest trading partner since 2009. In 2014, China’s trade volume with Africa rose to four times that of 2006. People-to-people and cultural exchanges have flourished with nearly 3 million visits made between China and Africa every year, garnering greater social and popular support for China-Africa friendship. The scope and depth of China-Africa exchanges and cooperation has been unprecedented. China’s contribution to Africa’s economic growth has significantly increased.

Tremendous changes have taken place in China and Africa in the past decade, with both shouldering new development tasks. China is striving to achieve the “two centenary goals” and realize the Chinese dream of great national renewal in accordance with the strategy of completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, comprehensively deepening reform, advancing law-based governance and applying strict party discipline. Africa is committed to accelerating its industrialization and modernization and forging ahead to fulfill the dreams outlined in Agenda 2063. Both the Chinese dream and the African dream aim to enable people to live a more prosperous and happier life.

The development strategies of China and Africa are highly compatible. Given their respective strengths, China and Africa need each other for cooperation and development. Rare historic opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation and common development have emerged. China’s comparative advantages in development experience, applied technology, funds and market can help Africa overcome the two major bottlenecks constraining its development — backward infrastructure and inadequate professional and skilled personnel. They can also help Africa translate its natural and human resources advantages and potential into a driving force for development and benefits for people’s livelihoods, thereby speeding up industrialization and agricultural modernization, and doing a better job in pursuing economic independence as well as self-reliant and sustainable development and achieving lasting peace and stability.

The international situation has undergone dramatic changes over the past decade. The transition to a multi-polar world has gained momentum. The rapid development of emerging markets and developing countries has become an irresistible trend in history, making them a pivotal force for safeguarding world peace and promoting common development. The UN has adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, mandating the realization of inclusive and sustainable development in all countries. Africa has become one of the continents with the fastest economic growth and greatest development potential. It is an important player on the stage of world politics, a new growth pole for the global economy and a center of human civilization with diverse cultures. China has risen to become the world’s second largest economy. It is an active player in the current international system that has helped build it and contributed to it. The current global governance system, however, has yet to fully accommodate the changes. There is a need to increase the representation and voice of developing countries including China and African nations in international affairs. China and Africa should make the most of their advantages in political mutual trust and economic complementarity to push for the all-round development of China-Africa cooperation, strengthen South-South cooperation, promote North-South cooperation, and set a good example for the development of a new model of international relations centered on mutually beneficial cooperation.

China-Africa relations have now reached a new historical starting point. Given their shared development tasks, highly compatible strategic interests, and broad prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation, the Chinese and African people will advance side by side with an ever-growing sense of purpose. China is willing to work with African countries to build and develop a China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership featuring political equality and mutual trust, win-win economic cooperation, mutually enriching cultural exchanges, mutual assistance in security, and solidarity and coordination in international affairs. China is devoted, as are African nations, to promoting an all-round development of China-Africa friendly cooperation, working together to pursue development and fulfill dreams, jointly delivering more benefits to Chinese and African people, and making greater contributions to world peace, stability, development and prosperity.

Part II. Upholding the Values of Friendship, Justice and Shared Interests and Adhering to the Principles of Sincerity, Practical Results, Affinity and Good Faith

Enhancing solidarity and cooperation with African countries has always been the cornerstone of China’s independent foreign policy of peace, as well as China’s firm and longstanding strategic choice. Under the new circumstances, China will adhere to the principles of its Africa policy — sincerity, practical results, affinity and good faith, uphold the values of friendship, justice and shared interests, and push for new leapfrog growth of its friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation with Africa.

“Sincerity” means China insists on the principles of equality, mutual trust, solidarity and mutual support, and will always be Africa’s most trustworthy friend and sincere partner. China respects African countries’ independent choice of the way to development as well as their practices and efforts to promote economic and social development and improve people’s living standard. It stands ready to exchange governance experience with African countries on the basis of equality and voluntarism, and promote mutual understanding and acceptance of and learning from each other’s political system and development path. China has always sincerely supported Africa’s development. It never interferes in African countries’ internal affairs, never imposes its will on them, and attaches no political strings when providing aid to Africa. On issues involving each other’s core interests and major concerns, China will enhance communication and coordination, mutual understanding and mutual support with African countries, and safeguard the common interests of both.

“Practical results” means that China aims to achieve practical and efficient results, seeks cooperation and mutual benefits, upholds the principle of honoring commitments with real actions and results, implements the guidelines and measures for mutually beneficial cooperation with Africa to the letter, and strives to realize the common development of China and Africa while helping Africa achieve independent development. Adhering to the traditional Chinese philosophy of “building a nest to attract the phoenix and teaching people how to fish,” China will support African countries’ efforts in infrastructure and human resources development to help them overcome these two major bottlenecks that have long been constraining Africa’s development, and promote China-Africa industrial alignment and capacity cooperation to facilitate Africa’s industrialization and agricultural modernization. China will adhere to the idea of pursuing peace through development and promoting development by maintaining peace, and support Africa’s efforts to seek independent and sustainable development, resolve African issues in an African way, and play a more constructive role in regional hotspot issues.

“Affinity” means the hearts of Chinese and African people are connected, and they will live together in harmony, promote inter-cultural dialogue, and enhance exchanges of ideas, policy alignment and mutual understanding to provide a solid popular and social basis for China-Africa friendship. China will strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Africa in education, science, culture, health and other social and cultural fields, expand exchanges between Chinese and African people, increase think tank, university and media exchanges, and support sub-national contacts and cooperation. Chinese and African employees working on each other’s soil will be encouraged to get along well with local people, and seek coexistence and common prosperity. The Chinese government encourages Chinese enterprises and citizens in Africa to care more about the well-being of local people and repay local society, create a good environment for the Africans working, studying and living in China, and constantly extend and consolidate the social basis of China-Africa friendship.

“Good faith” means China cherishes good faith and settlement of problems in an appropriate manner. It views and promotes China-Africa relations from strategic and long-term perspectives, and seeks joint efforts with Africa to create a good environment for friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation. China stands ready to strengthen policy coordination and communication with African countries, adheres to the principles of mutual respect and win-win cooperation, faces squarely and sincerely the new developments and problems confronting their relations through equal and friendly coordination, and ensures that both sides benefit from sincere, friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation.

Upholding the values of friendship, justice and shared interests is a hallmark of China’s policy toward other developing countries. While valuing friendship and justice as well as shared interests, China places more importance on the former. The core principle is to connect assistance to developing countries, including those in Africa, for their independent and sustainable development with China’s own development, achieve win-win cooperation and common development, and promote more balanced, inclusive and sustainable development of the world at large. China will never repeat the past colonial way in its cooperation with Africa and never pursue development at the cost of Africa’s natural and ecological environment or long-term interests.

Providing support and assistance to African countries for their independent and sustainable development conforms to the interests of both African people and the people of the entire world, and is the common responsibility of the international community. While engaging in cooperation with Africa, China always respects and protects the fundamental interests of African countries and their people, upholds fairness and seeks justice for Africa. It also pursues mutual benefit and win-win results, and sincerely supports and assists Africa in its efforts to realize peace, stability and development.

The one-China principle is the political precondition and foundation for the establishment and development of China’s relations with African countries and regional organizations. The Chinese government appreciates the fact that African countries abide by the one-China principle, support China’s reunification, and refuse to have official relations and contacts with Taiwan. China is committed to developing friendly cooperation in an all-round way with all African countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

China appreciates the constructive actions of the international community to support and assist Africa in realizing lasting peace and sustainable development. It will strengthen coordination and cooperation with other countries as well as international and regional organizations on the basis of the “Africa-proposed, Africa-agreed and Africa-led” principle and with an active, open and inclusive attitude. China will explore tripartite and multilateral cooperation in Africa so as to jointly contribute to peace, stability and development on the continent.

Part III. Promoting the All-Round Development of China-Africa Cooperation

1. Enhancing political mutual trust

(1) Intensifying high-level exchanges

While bringing into play the role of high-level exchanges in providing political guidance, China will maintain the momentum of frequent mutual visits and dialogue between Chinese and African leaders, with a view to facilitating communication on bilateral relations and major issues of common interest, solidifying traditional friendship, and bolstering political mutual trust. China advocates mutual understanding and support on issues involving their respective core interests and major concerns. It calls for safeguarding shared interests, pursuing development together, and deepening cooperation. All these aim to lay a solid political groundwork for the development of bilateral relations between China and individual African countries as well as the overall China-Africa relationship.

(2) Boosting experience sharing in governance

China is of the view that countries should respect and support each other’s efforts to explore and improve development paths and political systems suited to their national conditions. It is ready to engage in a variety of experience-sharing programs with African countries. Through these programs, they will draw wisdom from each other’s civilizations and development practices, increase exchanges of governance experience, and promote common development in accordance with the principles of communication on an equal footing, mutual learning, and shared progress.

(3) Improving intergovernmental consultation and cooperation mechanisms

China will make the most of the coordinating role of bilateral mechanisms such as political consultations between foreign ministries, joint (mixed) committees on trade and economic cooperation and high-level economic and trade cooperation mechanisms, and mixed committees on science and technology. It will further diversify and improve intergovernmental dialogue and consultation mechanisms to promote China-Africa intergovernmental dialogue and cooperation.

(4) Promoting exchanges in various sectors including those between legislative bodies, consultative bodies, political parties, the military and local governments

In keeping with the purpose of deepening understanding and cooperation with mutual respect, China favors increased multi-level, multi-channel, multi-form and all-dimensional friendly exchanges between the National People’s Congress of China and organizations such as the parliaments of African countries and the Pan-African Parliament. These will help further substantiate the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership.

China stands for expanded and strengthened exchanges between the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and relevant institutions such as African national parliaments, the Pan-African Parliament, the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union (AU), and the economic and social councils of individual African countries.

The Communist Party of China stands ready to expand and deepen diverse forms of exchanges and cooperation with friendly political parties and organizations in African countries based on the principles of independence, equality, mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. It is committed to exploring a new platform for collective communication and dialogue with the aim of enhancing mutual understanding and friendship and deepening exchanges of governance experience. This will also enable them to better understand and recognize each other’s governance systems and philosophies, learn from each other, improve governance capacities together and contribute to the development of state-to-state relations.

Efforts will be made to maintain the momentum of mutual visits between Chinese and African military leaders, and push for strengthened policy dialogue and increased exchanges between young officers.

China supports the establishment of an increasing number of twin province/state and twin city relationships between China and African countries in a bid to strengthen ties between Chinese and African local governments and facilitate exchanges and cooperation in local development and administration.

2. Deepening cooperation in international affairs

China will further enhance exchanges and cooperation with African countries in international institutions such as the UN and on other international occasions. It will maintain communication and coordination with African countries on prominent international and regional issues. It stands for mutual understanding and support on major issues concerning their respective state sovereignty, territorial integrity, national dignity and development interests, while safeguarding their shared interests as well as those of developing countries.

China will work in concert with Africa to uphold the international order and system underpinned by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. It is firmly supportive of increasing the representation and voice of developing countries in the international governance system. Supporting comprehensive reform of the UN, China maintains that priority should be given to increasing African countries’ representation and voice in the UN Security Council and other UN agencies to address the injustices Africa suffered historically. It is committed, as African nations are, to defending the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, upholding international fairness and justice, and making the world order more just and reasonable.

China calls on the international community to continue to step up the global economic governance reform-in particular, to deliver the promised IMF quota reform as soon as possible-so as to increase the representation and voice of emerging markets and developing countries. It calls for strengthened dialogue between the G20 and Africa and is supportive of Africa’ s participation in G20 affairs.

China will join hands with Africa to call on members of the international community to realize that they are all in the same boat and should therefore share rights and responsibilities. In this spirit, it calls for efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit, strengthen all countries’ capacities for development, ameliorate the international environment for development, optimize development partnerships and improve development coordination mechanisms. All these aim to achieve balanced, sustainable and inclusive growth, jointly create a path of development that is fair, open, comprehensive and innovative, realize common development and advance the common interests of mankind. China will continue to uphold and advocate the principles such as equality, mutual trust, win-win results, solidarity and cooperation while promoting South-South cooperation at a higher level, in a broader scope and on a larger scale under the new circumstances.

China reaffirms the fundamental role of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the international response to climate change. It agrees to jointly maintain the solidarity of developing countries, while upholding the principles and provisions of the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol, especially the principles of equity, “common but differentiated responsibilities” and respective capabilities. It is resolved to work for the establishment of an equitable, reasonable, cooperative and mutually beneficial international climate management system, and promote all-round, effective and sustained implementation of the UNFCCC. China has taken note of the progress made in the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa. It agrees to jointly safeguard the interests of developing countries and push for the convention’s full and effective implementation.

3. Deepening economic and trade cooperation

(1) Helping boost Africa’s industrialization

China will make prioritizing support for Africa’s industrialization a key area and a main focus in its cooperation with Africa in the new era. Allowing industrial alignment and capacity cooperation to play a leading role in bringing about overall development will help accelerate the industrialization in Africa, thereby providing a solid foundation for Africa’s economic independence as well as self-reliant and sustainable development. In light of their national conditions, development needs and feasible international rules, China will vigorously support the efforts of African countries to improve their “soft” and “hard” environment for investment and development, optimizing laws and regulations on and government services for attracting and protecting foreign investment, and removing the two major bottlenecks impeding development, namely, backward infrastructure and inadequate professional and skilled personnel. Efforts will be made to promote industrial alignment and capacity cooperation between China and African countries in an orderly fashion, with the aim to facilitate Africa’s industrialization and economic diversification, and increase the level of production, living standards and employment in African countries. China is supportive of African countries’ development of special economic zones, industrial parks and science and technology parks to attract investment and talents. It will guide, encourage and support the efforts of Chinese enterprises to jointly build economic and trade cooperation zones in Africa to serve as important platforms for promoting China-Africa industrial capacity cooperation and attracting more Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa, build production and processing bases and localize their operations in Africa, contribute to the increase of local employment, tax revenue and foreign-exchange income, and promote the transfer of industries and technologies.

While sticking to the values of friendship, justice and shared interests, win-win cooperation, the principles of openness and inclusiveness, and market-based operation, China will give priority to building pilot industrial capacity cooperation demonstration zones in African countries with appropriate conditions. China will work together with chosen African countries to bring into full play their governments’ role in guidance, coordination, management and service, increase exchanges of experience in macroeconomic management, and innovate on the cooperation mechanisms in investment protection, finance, taxation, customs, visa, immigration and exchanges of police officers to help African countries enhance capacity building in law enforcement and improve management and services. They will also work in concert to achieve an early harvest in their industrial capacity cooperation, accumulating development and cooperation experience, providing a demonstration effect and playing a leading role in bringing along cooperation with other African countries.

(2) Helping boost Africa’s agricultural modernization

China will prioritize support for Africa’s agricultural modernization in its cooperation with Africa in the new era, with increased input and expanded cooperation to help African countries resolve the development problem of this basic industry that has a bearing on their national economy and people’s livelihoods as well as economic independence. China is willing to share its experience and technology in agricultural development with African countries, and supports their efforts to improve their agricultural technology and techniques to produce and process agricultural, livestock and fishery products. This will help them build an agricultural value chain and increase independent grain production capacity to boost food security, enhance the competitiveness of cotton and other specialty industries in the world, generate more income and improve the livelihood of farmers. China will improve and continue to carry out agricultural technology demonstration projects in Africa, implement the High-Quality and High-Yield Agriculture Demonstration Project, bolster research and development, promotion and extensive use of seeds, send senior agricultural expert teams and agricultural vocational training teacher teams, and expand the scale and effect of training in agricultural management and technology. It will build and improve bilateral mechanisms for agricultural cooperation with Africa, give play to the strengths and roles of each side, and strengthen supervision and evaluation of cooperation projects to increase the quality and level of cooperation. China will encourage and promote China-Africa trade in agricultural products. It will encourage and support Chinese enterprises to engage in crop farming, grain storage, stockbreeding and fishery, and invest in the processing of agricultural products in African countries, helping create more jobs for local people, increase the added value of local products and generate more foreign-exchange income, and boosting Africa’s agricultural modernization. China will also help African countries promote irrigation techniques, effectively use water resources, and improve their capacity to prevent floods and combat droughts.

(3) Participating in Africa’s infrastructure development across the board

China will encourage and support Chinese enterprises and financial institutions’ expanded involvement in infrastructure development in Africa, give full play to the role of policy-based finance, and innovate on investment and financing cooperation models. While sticking to market-oriented operation, as well as the principles of overall cooperation with emphasis on selected areas and a focus on benefits, China will encourage and support the efforts of domestic enterprises to adopt various models to participate in the construction of railways, highways, telecommunications networks, electric power facilities, regional aviation networks, harbors, water works and other infrastructure projects as well as water resources development and protection in Africa. They will also be encouraged and supported to participate in investment, operation and management of these projects. It will encourage bilateral cooperation in the planning and designing, construction, technical standards, supervision, large equipment utilization, and management and operation of the projects.

China stands for pushing forward infrastructure and industrial development in Africa in a coordinated way, with a focus on intensive operation and economies of scale. It will prioritize support for the construction of infrastructure facilities for special economic zones, industrial parks, science and technology parks, etc., to provide favorable conditions for Africa’ s industrial development and China-Africa industrial capacity cooperation. It will facilitate cross-border and cross-regional connectivity in infrastructure to help accelerate the process of African integration.

(4) Strengthening China-Africa financial cooperation

China will give full play to financing platforms and tools, which include preferential loans and other means of policy-based finance, the China-Africa Development Fund, special loans for African small and medium-sized enterprises, the Africa Growing Together Fund, China-Africa industrial cooperation fund, and the BRICS’ New Development Bank, and seek innovation in its financial cooperation with Africa. It will support the efforts of Chinese financial institutions to increase exchanges and seek co-financing cooperation with their counterparts in African countries and African regional and global financial and development institutions, and support Chinese and African financial institutions in establishing joint-stock banks based on commercial principles. China will strengthen currency cooperation between the central banks of the two sides, discuss with African countries the arrangements for expanding cross-border local currency settlements and currency swaps, and encourage Chinese and African enterprises to settle their trade and investment in local currencies. It will also support reciprocal establishment of financial institutions, and increase support to financing insurance. China will step up coordination and collaboration with African countries in international financial organizations and mechanisms to improve and reform the current international financial system and increase the representation and voice of developing countries.

(5) Promoting the facilitation of China-Africa trade and investment

China will encourage more African commodities to enter the Chinese market and continue to grant zero-tariff treatment to 97 percent of taxable items from the least developed countries that have established diplomatic relations with China, according to the implementation of exchanged notes by both sides. Both Chinese and African enterprises are encouraged to make the most of harbor advantages to build regional logistics and wholesale centers. China will strengthen quality control of the goods exported to Africa and build more sales channels, reinforce cooperation in inspection and quarantine with African countries, and jointly crack down on counterfeit or substandard import and export goods. China will boost customs cooperation with Africa, increase information exchange, mutual recognition of supervision and mutual assistance with law enforcement, jointly combat commercial fraud and create a law-abiding and convenient trade environment. China will help African countries enhance capacity building in customs, inspection and quarantine, provide support to improve trade facilitation, and help boost trade within Africa. China will continue to support the development of the African Free Trade Zone and regional integration, and discuss the establishment of institutionalized trade arrangements with countries and regional organizations in Africa.

While aligning Africa’ s needs with China’ s advantages and adhering to the principles of equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, China is committed to improving the quality and efficiency of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, helping Africa speed up its industrialization and agricultural modernization, and encouraging and supporting the efforts of Chinese enterprises to expand and optimize their investment in areas such as industry, agriculture, infrastructure and energy in Africa. It will continue to provide concessional loans and export credit insurance support to qualified projects and moderately increase the concessionality of its concessional loans.

(6) Bolstering resource and energy cooperation

On the basis of the principles of win-win cooperation, green development, low-carbon emissions and sustainable development, China will expand and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in resources and energies with African countries. It will help African countries strengthen their capabilities in exploration, development and processing of resources and energies, increase the added value of their primary products, create more local jobs, generate more foreign-exchange income, and turn their resource and energy endowment into achievements in sustainable development and benefits that can be shared by African people. China will innovate on the models of resource and energy cooperation with Africa, and expand whole-industry-chain cooperation in energy and mining sectors. It will support the construction of national or regional power grids in Africa, boost cooperation with Africa in the development of renewable energy and low-carbon, green energy such as wind power, solar power and hydropower, and promote rational development and utilization of renewable energy sources in Africa in order to serve Africa’ s industrialization.

(7) Expanding cooperation on the marine economy

China will help fully tap into the abundant marine resources and development potential of relevant African countries and support them in strengthening capacity building, planning, designing, construction and exchange of operation experience in marine fishing, offshore aquaculture, seafood processing, maritime transportation, shipbuilding, construction of harbors and harbor industrial parks, exploration and development of offshore oil and gas reserves, as well as management of the marine environment. It will support the efforts of Chinese and African enterprises to carry out mutually beneficial cooperation in various forms. It will also help African countries develop the marine economy in light of local conditions and explore new areas for Africa’ s economic growth and China-Africa cooperation, so that African countries’ abundant marine resources can better serve their national development and bring more benefits to their people.

4. Strengthening development cooperation between China and Africa

(1) Continuing to increase development assistance to Africa

As the largest developing country, China has provided assistance to African countries for a long time and will continue to do so within its capability. China has also received support and assistance from African countries in a timely manner whenever it is stricken by a big natural disaster. It stands ready to continue to provide and gradually increase emergency aid and necessary assistance to African countries in a spirit of sharing weal and woe and standing together through thick and thin with the latter. While providing the assistance in light of its own financial capacity and economic situation and the pressing needs of African countries, China sticks to the principles of no political strings attached, non-interference in others’ internal affairs and no demands imposed on others. China will come up with innovative assistance models and optimize assistance conditions. China’s assistance will be primarily used in the areas of human resources development, infrastructure, medical care and health, agriculture, food security, climate change response, desertification prevention and control, and wildlife and environmental protection, and for humanitarian purposes, with the aim to help African countries alleviate poverty, improve people’s livelihoods and build up capacity for independent development.

China will honor its promise to exempt the intergovermental interest-free loans borrowed by the relevant least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing countries in Africa that are not returned when they mature at the end of 2015.

(2) Supporting Africa in strengthening its public health system and capacity building

Drawing on the experience in joint fight against Ebola and malaria, China will deepen and expand health cooperation with Africa. It will strengthen communication with Africa on medical and health policies, and support Africa’s efforts to strengthen its public health and disease control and prevention system and capacity building. China will actively participate in the preparation for the establishment of an African Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and assist African countries to improve the level of laboratory technology and deliver training to medical personnel, with a focus on assisting in prevention and control of non-contagious chronic diseases, malaria and other insect-borne infectious diseases, cholera, Ebola, AIDS, tuberculosis, and other preventable infectious diseases and newly emerging diseases. By making full use of its own strengths, China will support, on a priority basis, the efforts of African countries to enhance their core capacity in border health quarantine, build infectious diseases monitoring stations, provide medical services to women and children, and improve the departments and services in the existing medical facilities. China will continue to support African countries in health infrastructure development. It will continue to send medical teams to African countries, launch cooperation between counterpart Chinese and African hospitals, and enhance exchanges and cooperation between modern and traditional medicine with a focus on improving local medical services. It will also continue to promote the “Brightness Action” campaign to provide free cataract operation and other short-term free medical services. China stands for increasing paired exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and African medical institutions and drug administration agencies, and supports their cooperation with international and regional organizations such as the World Health Organization and the African Union. It will encourage Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises to invest in Africa in a bid to lower the cost of medicines in Africa and increase the affordability of medical and pharmaceutical products in Africa.

(3) Expanding cooperation in education and human resources development

China will expand cooperation in education with Africa, supporting educational development in the continent. It will provide more input in light of the social and economic development needs of African countries so as to achieve greater results, and help train more much-needed professionals for African countries, in particular, teachers and medical workers. While enhancing exchanges and cooperation between education administration agencies and institutions on both sides, China will continue to implement the “African Talents Program”, gradually increase the number of government scholarships for applicants in African countries, and encourage local governments, institutions of higher learning, enterprises and social organizations to set up scholarships. It welcomes more African young people to study in China, encouraging and supporting them to play a bigger role in the pragmatic cooperation between China and Africa. China will encourage colleges and universities on both sides to establish partnerships, support exchanges between Chinese and African teachers and students, and magnify the effect of the 20+20 Cooperation Plan for Chinese and African Institutions of Higher Education. Following the principle of integrating learning and knowledge application, China will scale up cooperation in teacher training and vocational education with African countries with the aim to expand the channels for human resources development.

(4) Sharing and popularizing the experience in poverty alleviation

Poverty is the common challenge confronting China and Africa. China will fulfill its promise to the international community to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It will actively implement the Program for Strengthening China-Africa Cooperation on Poverty Reduction issued by China and the AU, strengthen China-Africa poverty alleviation cooperation, give play to the role of international poverty alleviation platforms such as the International Poverty Reduction Center in China jointly established by China and the United Nations, and encourage and support governments, academic institutions, enterprises and non-governmental organizations on both sides to carry out diverse forms of experience exchanges and pragmatic cooperation on poverty alleviation. These will facilitate the sharing of China’s successful experience in achieving large-scale poverty reduction by alleviating rural poverty through development. China will strengthen cooperation on demonstration projects to support African countries in enhancing their capability of independent poverty alleviation and development.

(5) Stepping up science and technology cooperation and knowledge sharing

China will continue to push forward implementation of the China-Africa Science and Technology Partnership Plan, and encourage strengthened science and technology exchanges and cooperation between China and African countries in the fields of agriculture, water resources, energy, aviation and aerospace, telecommunication, environmental protection, desertification prevention and control, medical care and marine sector. It will support African countries in building up their capacity in science and technology, and work with them to set up joint laboratories, joint research centers, and science and technology parks in key areas. It will continue to sponsor outstanding young African scientists to conduct short-term research in China, step up training on applied technology and relevant policies, and jointly establish advanced-technology application and demonstration bases. China will promote the dissemination of China’ s science and technology research results and the popularization and application of advanced and applied technology in Africa.

(6) Enhancing cooperation on climate change and environmental protection

China will boost and consolidate cooperation with Africa under the UNFCCC and other relevant mechanisms, and push for both sides to carry out consultations, exchanges and cooperation projects in relation to addressing climate change. China will innovate on cooperation areas, deepen pragmatic cooperation, and work in concert with Africa to enhance the capacity for tackling climate change. China stands for closer policy dialogue, and closer bilateral and multilateral coordination and cooperation with Africa in the area of environment. It calls for strengthened cooperation in education and personnel training on ecological protection, environment management, pollution prevention and control, bio-diversity and water resources conservation, and the prevention and control of desertification, as well as in demonstration projects in these areas. It will push forward environment-friendly industrial capacity cooperation and transfer of applied technology. While enhancing exchanges on environmental protection laws and regulations, China will engage in dialogue and cooperation on the conservation of endangered species of wild fauna and flora, step up intelligence sharing and capacity building in law enforcement, and crack down on transnational organized crimes related to endangered wildlife trafficking. While implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and dealing with other related international affairs, China will strengthen communication and coordinate positions with African countries, in a bid to work together to promote the protection and sustainable exploitation of global wild fauna and flora.

5. Deepening and expanding cultural and people-to-people exchanges

(1) Expanding exchanges and cooperation in culture and sports

China will maintain the momentum of high-level contacts, and implement bilateral cultural cooperation agreements and their implementation plans. Encouraging and supporting African countries for Chinese-language teaching, China will continue to set up more Confucius Institutes in African countries, and encourage and support the opening of Chinese cultural centers in Africa and African cultural centers in China. It will support the holding of the “Year of China” events in Africa and the “Year of an African Country” events in China, raise the profile of the “Chinese/African Cultures in Focus” events, and enrich the program of China-Africa mutual visits between cultural personnel and the China-Africa Cultural Cooperation Partnership Program, with the aim to achieve better results in cultural exchanges. China stands for respect of each other’s cultural diversity, and will promote China-Africa cultural inclusiveness and common prosperity, thereby enhancing understanding and friendship between Chinese and African people. In addition to promoting exchanges between cultural institutions and personnels, China will strengthen cooperation with Africa in cultural industry and personnel training.

According to the principle of focusing on key areas and doing things within its capability, China will strengthen exchanges and result-oriented sports cooperation with African countries and continue to provide assistance to support the development of sports in African countries.

(2) Expanding tourism cooperation

China will work with African countries to provide convenience in visa application and other services to facilitate travels by their nationals to their respective countries and regions, support tourism promotion activities in each other’s countries and regions, encourage airlines on both sides to open more air routes and operate more flights between China and Africa, and expand personnel exchanges and visits. China welcomes and is willing to give positive consideration to applications of qualified African countries for Approved Destinations Status for outbound Chinese tourist groups, and support Chinese and African enterprises to engage in mutually beneficial cooperation in tourism infrastructure development, thereby improving and optimizing the environment for tourism.

(3) Broadening cooperation on press, radio, film and television

China will push forward diverse forms of exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and African media outlets, creating necessary conditions for this purpose and providing guidance and convenience. Dialogue and consultation between relevant government departments will be strengthened for the purpose of deepening media cooperation, enhancing cyberspace management and sharing experience in handling the relations with media, with a priority given to support capacity building of African media. Support will be provided for the sound development of the China-Africa Press Center, with the aim to increase objective and balanced media coverage on the development of China and Africa and on China-Africa relations so as to promote mutual understanding and recognition between Chinese and African people. China will encourage Chinese and African media organizations to step up cooperation in areas such as journalism studies, personnel training, content exchanges and joint news gathering and production, and new media. China will strengthen technological exchanges and industrial cooperation with Africa on radio, film and television, and encourage connection and contacts between Chinese and African radio and TV broadcasters. It will continue to promote the digitization of radio and TV broadcasting in Africa, provide related financing, technical support and personnel training, and encourage Chinese and African enterprises to engage in joint venture cooperation.

(4) Encouraging exchanges between academia and think tanks

China will encourage Chinese and African universities to carry out joint studies to enhance research strengths of both sides. China will actively implement the China-Africa Joint Research and Exchange Plan and the China-Africa Think Tanks 10+10 Partnership Plan. It will support Chinese and African research institutes and think tanks to engage in multi-forms of exchanges and cooperation, such as joint researches, seminars, and publishing of books. Priority support will be given to joint researches and result sharing in areas that are conducive to promoting China-Africa friendly cooperation, such as governance, development paths, industrial capacity cooperation, and comparison of cultures and laws.

(5) Enhancing people-to-people exchanges

China will continue to enhance people-to-people exchanges to increase mutual understanding between Chinese and African people and push forward cooperation on improving people’s livelihoods. It encourages the implementation of the Proposals on China-Africa People-to-People Exchanges and Cooperation, China-Africa People-to-People Friendship Action and China-Africa People-to-People Friendship and Partnership Program, and supports non-governmental organizations and social groups to engage in diverse forms of friendly exchanges and public benefit activities.

It will promote exchanges between Chinese and African youths and contacts between Chinese and African government departments for youth affairs and youth organizations of political parties, and promote exchanges between outstanding youths from all walks of life in China and Africa. It will encourage and guide Chinese young volunteers to go to African countries to deliver volunteer services, and engage in poverty alleviation, education assistance and other activities.

China will continue to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with Africa to promote gender equality, deepen exchanges between women’s organizations and high-level dialogue on women’s issues, maintain good cooperation on multilateral women’s affairs, and work with Africa to promote women’s cause in China and African countries. It will continue to provide necessary assistance to African countries to benefit women and children, and strengthen cooperation in skills training.

China will engage in exchanges with Africa in such areas as service systems for persons with disabilities and social security policies for them. For this, efforts will be made to step up cooperation in areas including rehabilitation, education, employment, social insurance, and development-oriented poverty reduction.

China will intensify friendly exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and African trade unions.

6. Promoting peace and security in Africa

(1) Supporting Africa in realizing peace and security

China supports African countries’ efforts in independently resolving their continent’s issues in their own way. Based on the principles of respecting the wills of African countries, not interfering in African countries’ internal affairs and observing the basic norms governing international relations, China will play a constructive role in maintaining and promoting peace and security in Africa. It will explore means and ways with Chinese characteristics to constructively participate in resolving hot-button issues in Africa and exert a unique impact on and make greater contributions to African peace and security. The Special Representative of the Chinese government on African Affairs will continue to play a contributing part.

China will strengthen dialogue and consultation with African countries and regional organizations on peace and security issues, pursue the principle of securing peace through development and promoting development with peace, and implement the consensus on achieving common, cooperative, comprehensive and sustainable security. It will support the efforts by African countries, the AU and sub-regional organizations to build capabilities in safeguarding peace and stability in Africa, and other relevant efforts. It will implement the Initiative on China-Africa Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Security and continue to provide, within its capabilities, support to Africa for its development of collective security mechanisms such as the African Standby Force and the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises.

China will uphold justice and safeguard the common interests of Africa and developing countries in multilateral organizations such as the UN. China attaches great importance to and supports the UN’s important role in safeguarding peace and stability in Africa, and will continue to support and expand its participation in the UN’s efforts in Africa aimed at maintaining and building peace.

(2) Deepening military cooperation

China will further strengthen military exchanges and cooperation with African countries. It will deepen military-related technological cooperation and carry out joint military training and exercises. China will scale up training of African military personnel according to the needs of the African side, and innovate on the training methods. It will continue to help African countries enhance their capacity building in national defense and peacekeeping to safeguard their own security and regional peace.

(3) Supporting Africa in confronting non-traditional security threats

China will strengthen cooperation with Africa in intelligence sharing and capacity building, and improve capabilities to confront non-traditional security threats together with African countries. It will support the international community’s efforts to crack down on piracy, continue to send naval vessels to participate in the missions for maintaining navigation safety in the Gulf of Aden and in waters off the coast of Somalia, and assist African countries in ensuring navigation safety in the Gulf of Guinea.

China will support the efforts of African countries and regional organizations in improving counter-terrorism capabilities and fighting terrorism, and help African countries develop their economy and root out the causes of terrorism, with the aim to safeguard regional security and stability and promote long-term peace and sustainable development in Africa. It will strengthen counter-terrorism exchanges and cooperation with the AU and priority countries in the region.

7. Strengthening exchanges and cooperation in consular, immigration, judicial and police areas

China will support institutional arrangements for the facilitation of personnel exchanges with Africa and guarantee the expansion of friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation and orderly personnel exchanges between the two sides.

China will work with African countries to establish more consular organizations in each other’s territory in a planned manner. It will strengthen consular consultation with African countries for both sides to have amicable discussions on urgent problems or issues of common interest in bilateral or multilateral consular relations. China stands for closer exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and African immigration departments to fight illegal immigration, supporting African countries to strengthen capacity building in enforcement of immigration-related laws.

China stands ready to promote exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and African judicial and police departments and the two sides may learn from each other in legal system development and judicial reform. It will support the efforts of Africa to strengthen capacity building in riot control, maintenance of stability and law enforcement. It stands for concrete and effective measures by both sides to protect the safety, rights and interests of personnel and organizations from the other side on their own soil.

China will work with African countries to enhance cooperation in judicial assistance and extradition and repatriation of criminal suspects. They will expand cooperation in signing judicial assistance treaties, cracking down on crimes, and pursuing fugitives and recovering criminal proceeds. They will work in concert to crack down on cross-border crimes and ensure the order of and the just and legal rights involved in trade and economic and personnel exchanges. It calls for the two sides to increase communication and cooperation in the areas of jail management, community correction, drug rehabilitation and transfer of convicted persons.

Part IV. FOCAC and Its Follow-up Actions

Since its establishment in 2000, FOCAC has become an important platform for collective dialogue between China and Africa and an effective mechanism for their pragmatic cooperation, thanks to the efforts of both sides. In the past 15 years, China and Africa have co-hosted the Beijing Summit and five ministerial conferences, drawn up a series of important programmatic documents on cooperation, and promoted the implementation of measures supporting African development and deepening the friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides, reaping fruitful results.

China and Africa have held dialogues through equal-footed dialogue mechanisms such as the Ministerial Conference, the political consultation between Chinese and African foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly sessions, the Senior Officials Meeting, and the consultation between the Secretariat of the Chinese Follow-up Committee of FOCAC and the African Diplomatic Corps in China, further enhancing mutual understanding and political mutual trust. The forum has served as a platform for all-round pragmatic cooperation, pushing for leapfrog increase in China-Africa trade and mutual investment and promoting mutual benefit and common development. The forum has been a bridge for closer people-to-people exchanges and friendship between China and Africa, promoting bilateral exchanges in all areas, and consolidating and expanding the social and popular support for the friendship between China and African countries. It has helped enhance communication and collaboration between China and African countries in the international arena, facilitating them to work together in safeguarding the overall interests of the two sides and developing countries.

China is willing to work with African countries to enhance the mechanism building of the forum, expand areas and ways of cooperation, enrich mutual cooperation, promote the establishment and improvement of sub-forum mechanisms in the fields of industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure, human resources development, industrial capacity cooperation, finance, science and technology, education, culture, health, poverty reduction, law, locals, youth, women, people-to-people exchanges, think tanks and media, and deepen cooperation in relevant areas. All these are aimed at enabling China-Africa cooperation to be more pragmatic and effective and achieve more tangible results under the framework of the forum, thereby bringing greater benefits to the Chinese and African people.

Part V. China’s Relations with African Regional Organizations

China values and supports the AU’s leadership in building a united and strong Africa and promoting African integration, its centrality in safeguarding peace and security in Africa, as well as a bigger role for the organization in regional and international affairs. It appreciates and supports the AU’s adoption and implementation of Agenda 2063 and its first 10-year plan. The creation of the Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the AU in 2014 has taken China-AU relations to a new stage. China is ready to increase high-level exchanges with the AU, give full play to the China-AU strategic dialogue mechanism, and enhance political dialogue and mutual trust. It will promote cooperation with the AU in areas such as development planning, experience sharing in poverty reduction, health, peace and security, and international affairs.

China appreciates the positive role of African sub-regional organizations in promoting peace, stability and development in their respective regions. It stands ready to strengthen friendly exchanges and cooperation with these organizations, and support their capacity-building efforts.

China is eager to establish and improve various dialogue and cooperation mechanisms with the AU and sub-regional organizations in Africa, thereby enhancing China-Africa cooperation at both regional and sub-regional levels in a wide array of fields including political affairs, the economy, trade and culture.

Militants Storm Hotel in Somali Capital and Blasts Rock Area

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NYT | The authorities said there were reports of at least two dead and 11 injured at the Afrik Hotel. A militant group, the Shabab, was believed to be behind the attack.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Militants with the extremist group al-Shabab stormed a major hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Sunday evening, the authorities said, raising fears of growing violence in the Horn of Africa nation as it faces a bitterly contested election season and the withdrawal of American troops.

The attack, which began at around 5 p.m. local time, took place at the Afrik Hotel, which is on the road to the city’s major international airport and a popular meeting place for politicians, lawmakers and members of the security services.

Images and video shared on social media showed smoke billowing into the blue skies. Heavy gunfire and blasts were heard in the hotel’s vicinity, according to Ismael Mukhtar Omar, the spokesman of Somalia’s ministry of information.

Authorities said that the Shabab militant group, which is Al Qaeda’s most powerful ally in Africa and has wreaked havoc across East Africa, carried out the attack. Security forces were continuing to engage them inside the hotel Sunday night. A Somali police spokesman, Sadiq Adan Ali, said in a statement that most of the people who were at the hotel had been evacuated.

Abdulkadir Adan, the founder of Aamin Ambulance, Mogadishu’s only free ambulance service, said in a text message that his team had removed the bodies of two people killed in the attack, and had taken another 11 who were injured from the site of the violence.

Mohamed Nur Galal, a former top military general, was killed in the attack, Mr. Omar confirmed in a post on Twitter. Among those rescued were senior federal and regional government officials along with security officers, he added.

The attack came just weeks before a crucial parliamentary and presidential election that has been plagued by disputes over how to properly conduct the voting, creating an impasse that risks delaying the vote and pushing the government past its constitutional term limit.

The disagreements, embroiling the federal and regional governments and opposition parties, have alarmed the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and African states, which have called on the various parties “to resolve the remaining electoral implementation issues in order for credible and inclusive elections to proceed.”

The elections were scheduled for Feb. 8, but that timeline looks unattainable now. President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has called on regional leaders to meet starting Monday to deal with the electoral crisis.

The tensions over the elections came to the fore last week after heavy infighting broke out between Somali forces and those from the southern region of Jubaland. Somali officials blamed the violence on groups backed by neighboring Kenya, allegations that officials in Nairobi denied. Somalia has severed diplomatic relations with Kenya after accusing it of meddling in its internal affairs.

Somalia is facing a host of other crises, including the coronavirus pandemic, swarms of desert locusts that are destroying crops, and the displacement of tens of thousands of people by seasonal floods late last year.

The Shabab militant group also continues to remain a threat, targeting civilians, government officials and peacekeeping forces besides carrying out attacks on restaurants, hotels and other establishments.

The Qaeda-linked group has financial muscle, too, as is collects millions of dollars in tariffs and payoffs to finances its operations, according to a United Nations Security Council report from last year. The group has been moving this money through Somalia’s banking system and is investing in local businesses and real estate.

Former President Trump, in the waning days of his term, announced an abrupt withdrawal of the 700 American troops from the country, leading observers to worry the pullout would embolden the Shabab and push them to carry out more attacks against the weak but internationally-backed government.