Eritrea stepped out of the body in 2007 in protest at neighboring Ethiopia sending troops to nearby Somalia to fight Al-Shabab.
Eritrea has rejoined a regional bloc it left 16 years ago, the information minister said late Monday, in the country’s latest attempt to reconnect with its neighbours.
Asmara left the Intergovernmental Authority for Development in East Africa (IGAD) in 2007 to protest the deployment of Ethiopian troops in Somalia to drive out Al-Shabab fighters who then controlled most of southern Somalia.
“Eritrea resumed its activities in IGAD and took place at the 14th Ordinary Summit in Djibouti,” Information Minister Yemane Meskel wrote on Twitter after the summit. He did not say what prompted the decision, but said Eritrea wanted to join other IGAD members and help promote peace and stability in the region.
Ruled by Isaias Afwerki since independence from Ethiopia in 1993, Eritrea fought a border war with Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000 and has repeatedly clashed with its neighbours.
It is also under sanctions from the United States and the European Union for alleged human rights violations.
However, it has taken steps to restore ties in recent years.
In 2018, it signed a peace agreement with Ethiopia, formally ending the state of war that had existed since the start of the border conflict. It also restored diplomatic ties with Somalia, normalized relations with Djibouti and strengthened ties with Kenya, which this year announced it would open an embassy in Asmara.
However, human rights groups said Afwerki’s rule remains as repressive as ever, pointing to forced military conscription, which keeps thousands of people fleeing the country every year. According to the Global Slavery Index 2023, Eritrea, Mauritania and North Korea have the highest prevalence of modern slavery in the world.
Eritrea also drew international condemnation for alleged atrocities committed by its soldiers during the 2020-2022 war in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, where they fought in support of Ethiopian forces against Tigrayan forces.
Asmara has denied those allegations, but witnesses said her troops are still on the ground in the region continuing human rights abuses despite a ceasefire in November that ended the war. Last month thousands of people demonstrated in Tigray against the presence of Eritrean troops, which are not mentioned in the file.