The Italian catholic newspaper Faro di Roma is examining the close relations between the Ethiopian regime, the feudal monarchy of the Emirates, the Shiite theocratic regime of Iran and the new Ottoman power of the vezir-i âzam (Grand Vizier) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Let’s start with Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (born in 1948) President and supreme commander of the armed forces of the United Arab Emirates.
The temporary victory achieved by the nationalist Amhara regime is mainly due to the intervention of the Eritrean troops who replaced the Ethiopian federal army, ENDF in disarray. An important role was played by the drones and the Arab experts that remotely piloted these new weapons who forced the democratic forces to stop their march on Addis Ababa and to retreat without fighting while waiting to reorganize.
The main suppliers of these drones are the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Turkey. These three countries have gone far beyond a simple arms sale to a third world country in civil war. They ensured constant military assistance by directly involving themselves in the Ethiopian conflict to strengthen their geopolitical aims in the Horn of Africa region.
A week before the offensive, Sultan Al Nahyan opened an airlift to provide extensive military support to the Ethiopian regime in its fight against democratic forces. Investigations conducted by Al Jazeera reveal that between September and November there were more than 90 flights between the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia, many of which intentionally hid from where they took off and where they landed.
The extensive support operation was guaranteed by two private airlines. The first, a Spanish one, organized 54 military support flights in less than a month. The second, Ukraine, 39 military cargo flights in two months.
Satellite images of the Ethiopian airbase of Harar Meda south of Addis Ababa show Chinese Wang Loong-class drones. These drones were not sold by China but by the United Arab Emirates, which also ensure a constant supply of ammunition for the drones and mercenary technicians to pilote them remotely as the federal army lacks its own pilots who are experts in this new technology.
In the three weeks before the offensive, the Ethiopian regime indulged itself at crazy expense to build an arsenal of drones and other weapons that would give a military advantage on the battlefields. Unlike the rare Ethiopian remote pilots, Arab mercenaries focused not on massacres of civilians but on ensuring effective air support for Eritrean infantry and paramilitary militias from Afar and Amhara.
The UAE not only delivers weapons and offers mercenaries to remotely guide drones but also acts as a logistics and delivery hub for arms triangulations from China and Turkey. This was revealed to us by Martin Plaut, a South African journalist and senior researcher at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London. “The UAE is the starting point for these arms supplies from China and Turkey. Some come directly, others pass through the United Arab Emirates “.
The United Arab Emirates have emerged in recent years as a major player in the Horn of Africa. Through political alliances, aid, investments, military base agreements and port contracts, Sultan Al Nahyan is expanding his influence in the region. A blatant demonstration came in the summer of 2018, when Eritrea and Ethiopia announced, after a flurry of visits from and to Emirati officials, that they had reached an agreement to end their 20-year war. Diplomacy and aid from the Emirates and Saudi Arabia were key to that agreement. An agreement that was in fact a simple political and military alliance against the common enemy: the Tigray and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, as it turns out now. Sultan Al Nahyan was aware of the Tigray invasion plan and offered his full support since the time.
In other countries of the Horn of Africa too, the role of the Sultan has proved destructive. Competition between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, on the one hand, and Qatar on the other, has spilled over into Somalia since the end of 2017, exacerbating the friction between Mogadishu and Somali regional leaders. Abu Dhabi’s relations with the Somali government have collapsed.
The Gulf rivalries have been destabilizing for Somalia. The United Arab Emirates, perceiving the Somali government of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmajo” (cheese) as too close to Qatar and eager to protect years of investment, has deepened its relations with the governments of Somalia’s regions and federal states. The import of the Gulf crisis in Somalia has contributed to the tensions between Mogadishu and the federal states that if not controlled maybe bring to a open rebellion to Somali central government, plunging the former Italian colony back into war clans chaos and violence.
Before the start of the Ethiopian civil war, Sultan Al Nahyan concentrated on easing the tensions between Ethiopia and Egypt, created over the years due to the mega GERD dam which is significantly decreasing the water level of the Nile with serious environmental and economic consequences that millions of Sudanese and Egyptian peasants are already suffering. The Sultan’s work has been thwarted by the double language, the deceptions and the lies of the Ethiopian Premier Abiy which have created such a climate of hostility between the two countries that there is no longer any room for mediation.
In summary, the United Arab Emirates aims to control the Horn of Africa by relying on the two regional dictators: Isaias Afwerki and Abiy Ahmed Ali. Sultan Al Nahyan objectives are: to control the strategic maritime section of the Red Sea — Arabian Sea, to buy arable land to feed their population at the expense of the Eritrean, Ethiopian and Somali populations, to create a regional block to counter Tehran’s attempts to influence. To achieve these goals, Sultan Al Nahyan is promoting a policy of confrontation with China, Russia, Turkey and its historical allies: the United States.
The influence of the United Arab Emirates can only be harmful for the Horn of Africa region. Arab monarchies have a deep contempt for African peoples considered inferior. They also export their model of absolute and brutal domination.
According to human rights organizations, the UAE government violates all basic human rights. The UAE has no democratically elected institutions and citizens have no right to change governments or form political parties. Activists and academics who criticize the regime are detained and imprisoned, and their families are often harassed by the state security apparatus.
There are reports of enforced disappearances in the UAE, many foreign nationals and Emirates citizens have been kidnapped by the UAE government and illegally detained and tortured in undisclosed locations. In numerous cases, the UAE government has tortured people in custody (mainly expatriates and political dissidents) and denied its citizens the right to a quick trial and access to a lawyer during official investigations. Many African and Asian foreigners live and work in a semi-enslaved condition with no union rights and deprived of their passports. African girls who go to work in the Emirates as maids are often turned into sex slaves destined to satisfy the perversions of their Arab masters.
Flogging and stoning are legal forms of judicial punishment in the UAE due to Sharia courts, although no stoning dead sentence has ever occurred. The government restricts freedom of speech and the press, and local media are censored to avoid criticizing the government, government officials or royal families.
A nightmare for the African peoples of the Horn of Africa but an example to follow for Isias Afwerki and Abiy Ahmed Ali. The primitive brutality of Sultan Al Nahyan is practiced by these two faithful disciples Afwerki and Abiy during the current civil war. Those who have paid for it are the people of Tigray and Oromia.
