NAIROBI (AFP) — An East African peacemaking bloc on Wednesday urged Eritrea to return to the fold, seven months after it pulled out, undermining efforts to restore regional stability, Kenyan officials said.
Asmara suspended its membership in the Djibouti-based seven-nation Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in April.
“Kenya is trying to convince Eritrea to return to the bloc, but at the moment the situation is very fluid,” a high-ranking Kenyan foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
Kenya holds the rotating chair of IGAD, which is currently struggling to breathe new life into peace initiatives it mediated in Sudan and Somalia.
“The absence of Eritrea has weakened the bloc and we hope it will respond positively and return on board,” he said, adding that discussions were initiated on the sidelines of last weekend’s EU-Africa summit in Lisbon.
Eritrea’s close ties with rebels in Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia makes the small Red Sea state a key player in efforts to restore stability in the region.
Eritrea is also on the brink of war with arch-foe Ethiopia over an unresolved border row.
IGAD succeeded the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development that was earlier created in 1986 by six drought-stricken east African countries to coordinate development in the region.
Eritrea joined soon after declaring its independence in 1993.
In 1996, the regional leaders adopted a resolution that created IGAD and widened its mandate to include fostering regional security by creating a mechanism to prevent and resolve disputes.
The body — which includes Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia — is credited with playing a major role in the January 2005 deal that ended two decades of north-south civil war in Sudan.
It also chaired peace talks that resulted in the creation of a government in Somalia in 2004, although the administration has failed to exert its control across the country.
Asmara withdrew from IGAD over the body’s backing of Ethiopian intervention in Somalia late last year.