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China-Africa relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Is China ready to take a front seat to help resolve conflicts in the Horn of Africa?

  • China’s ‘back-seat’ playbook likely to prioritise infrastructure, economic partnerships over dispute resolution, experts say
  • It’s an approach that sidelines opposition players, analyst says

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When a peace deal between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF was finally signed in South Africa on November 2, Beijing was not among the key negotiators. Photo: AFP
Jevans Nyabiage
When China offered in June to mediate disputes in the Horn of Africa, observers speculated that China would take a prominent, more direct role in solving long-standing conflicts in the region.
Under the new initiative, called the “Outlook on Peace and Development in the Horn of Africa”, observers anticipated that China might bring to the negotiating table key warring factions in the Tigray war in northern Ethiopia, which had seen thousands killed and millions displaced.

The civil war erupted in November 2020 after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a leftist political party, of attacking its military base to steal weapons.

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But when a peace deal between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF was finally signed in South Africa on November 2, Beijing was not among the key negotiators.

Observers say that China still prefers to take a back seat in solving disputes, favouring development-led strategies and working with incumbents.

That approach was apparent in the Ethiopian conflict.

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