Why do these African leaders need an European patron? Couldn’t they just get together and get the job done?
If only they could ask Eritrea!
I believe Eritrea was the first Sub Saharan Africa country that faced the scourge of extremism, in the late 1990s of the last century. It beat terrorists in a short period of time by deploying two important strategies.
a/ it used the same field tactics that the terrorists employed, except that the Eritrean security forces would defend villagers and their institutions while the terrorists would wreak havoc in the communities.
b/it empowered the communities to defend themselves.
Another important point is that fighting terrorism succeeds only if the affected communities trust their governments. The West African governments could not beat the ragtag extremists because the communities didn’t trust their governments. And Macron’s modern weaponry and his deep pocket can’t change this basic reality.
In Eritrea’s case, the government was the fruit of a long liberation war in which almost all Eritreans had participated. Therefore, it had earned trust from the target communities
Well, there are plenty of reasons why I feel proud of my Eritrean-ness. This is one of them. Eritrea needs no European, or any other patron, to beat its enemies.
Time for these leaders to pay homage to Asmara.
arhebo.com 