Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

China to Sponsor First Peace Conference in Horn of Africa


Tue 22 Mar 2022 | 05:00 PM
Ahmad El-Assasy

Xue Bing, China's recently designated envoy to the Horn of Africa, announced that his country will host the first peace conference in the first half of 2022 to try to resolve regional disputes.

China is attempting to take a more active role in the region's critical geopolitical battle.

Beijing appointed Xue, a senior diplomat who previously served as ambassador to Papua New Guinea as well as other nations in Africa, the Americas, and Oceania, earlier this year.

Last week, Xue began an African journey that took him to Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, and Kenya, with Uganda and South Sudan on the horizon.

Xue said at a news briefing in Nairobi that the peace conference intends to give a venue for regional governments to negotiate their problems.

According to Ethiopia's official news agency ENA, Kenya and Ethiopia have offered to hold the discussions.

During his visit to Addis Ababa, Xue stated that China wants to bring regional countries together to address security and development issues.

He spoke on the Initiative for Peaceful Development in the Horn of Africa, which had been suggested by China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a tour to Africa.

The effort intends to help countries in the region attain self-sufficiency in terms of long-term stability, prosperity, and development.

The African area is being torn apart, with the Tigray conflict north of Ethiopia killing thousands of civilians and displacing millions, as well as bloodshed in Somalia and Kenyan-Ethiopian conflicts.