Brigadier General Tekle (Manjos) Kiflai, who is reputed to be the liaison for the armed Ethiopian opposition in Eritrea,  has become the Eritrean regime’s façade in Southern Sudan and specially in Juba where he owns several hotels.

Last year Manjos brought twenty-five conscripted girls from the Sawa military camp to work in his hotels and other businesses in Juba. About twenty of the girls have since disappeared from Juba and their whereabouts is not known.

The disappearance of the girls has created a crisis among several non-Sudanese entities working in the region. The local government and Mr Alem Hadish, the Eritrean regime’s consul in Juba, have accused non-Sudanese entities of assisting the girls to escape.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia and Eritrea have opened yet another proxy “war” in Southern Sudan. Businesses with close association to the ruling parties of Eritrea and Ethiopia are taking competition to confrontation and placing the host government in an awkward position.

Meet The Ambassador

The current Ambassador, Mr Issa Ahmed Issa has been appointed to the ambassadorship to Sudan twice since 1991.   Meanwhile, Mr. Melaake “Wedi Fitewrari”, the embassy’s chief intelligence has been re-assigned to Djibouti—he was appointed to Sudan for three tours.

The candidate for his replacement is Wedi Berhe, another multiple-appointee. Wedi Berhe is an intelligence veteran and is in charge of the Ethiopian opposition in Sudan. His transfer to Sudan is believed to be a strategic appointment related to the planned coordination of the Ethiopian opposition’s activities in the Sudan.

East Sudan

The appointment of Mr. Ibrahim Hamid as Sudan’s interior minister was not received well by the PFDJ, which has had a strained relationship with him for a long time.

Ibrahim is from Eastern Sudan region bordering Eritrea—and he doesn’t owe his career to the machinations of the PFDJ.

Meanwhile, the Eritrean regime has withdrawn its forces from the Sudanese border and deployed them in the environs of Tessenei.  The lax borders have increased the outflow of Eritrean youth, who are entering Sudan with little hindrance.

Isaias’s Unlikely Fans

President Isaias Afwerki’s firm alignment with the Islamists of Somalia, and his fiery rhetoric against the United States, has won him the acclaim and praise of Islamists in the region—despite Isaias’s persecution of Eritreans, including Islamists, who are seen as too religious.   

One of his fans is Dr. Mustafa Osman, Sudan’s former foreign minister and the protégé of Dr. Turabi, Sudan’s former strongman. Dr. Mustafa Osman, an Islamist, is reintroducing Isaias Afwerki as a supporter of the Islamist causes in the region and a committed anti-imperialist.  Dr. Mustafa has been warning the leaders of the region that any replacement of Isaias Afwerki would be an American stooge.  

Another fan is Reza Ameri, Iran’s ambassador to the Sudan, who is also accredited to Eritrea.  When he paid a visit to Eritrea late last year, he was assured that Eritrea supports Iran’s nuclear ambitions and intends to expand bilateral relations with Iran. Eritrea’s ambassador to Qatar, Ali Ibrahim Ahmed, was accredited to Iran, this month.

Last month, Iran supplied Eritrea with two shiploads of oil, in recognition of its government’s anti-US rhetoric and the help it is providing Somali Islamists.

In addition to politicians, Isaias Afwerki has also won the acclaim of Sudanese and Egyptian Islamist intellectuals who are promoting Isaias, in regional conferences and intellectual circles, to generate support for his stand. The most prominent of these intellectuals are Mr. Hassen Mekki, from the International African University; Mr. AlZemzemi Beshir, from the African Center for Human Development; and Mr. Said Flefil of Cairo University. Flefil, a close friend of Isaias Afwerki, has asked the Eritrean opposition to condemn the Ethiopian involvement in Somalia and to stand in line with the region’s position of solidarity with Somalia’s Islamists. In exchange, the region (meaning Egypt) would extend to them the needed support and bring them into a negotiations with the PFDJ.

Isaias Afwerki is singing the right songs to the Islamists, telling one of them that “if the USA kills me I will die a martyr”—music to the ears of the Islamists.