East Africa: Peace Devoid of Politics Means War - the 2018 Liberal Peace Script Between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

9 February 2022
opinion

The infamous 2018 peace accord between Ethiopia and Eritrea was hailed by the international community for shattering the 20-year-old stalemate between the two countries. The rapprochement was presented as an embodiment of African solutions, an "anti-liberal'" peace concocted by outward looking heads of state who internally settled the limitations of international mediation and peacebuilding.

I argue here that the international community's accolade amounted to the endorsement of a liberal text embedding the same monolithic peacebuilding formula of the 2000 Algiers Peace Agreement, which associates and perpetuates violence with political action. I further argue that peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea was never institutionalized, due to the technocratic approach of peacebuilding which sidelines everyday acts of peace and active grassroots peacebuilding exhibited by inhabitants straddled in the borderland region. Liberal scripts dilute political realities and normalize violence which is currently unfolding in the Ethio-Tigray war.

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