The United States Should Openly Support Regime Change in Eritrea: Africa may be the world’s second most-populous continent and a growing economic powerhouse but, for too long, the White House and State Department have treated it as an afterthought.
Often, this manifests itself in missed opportunities: Africa is the world’s second most populous continent and potentially a wealthy one. The Democratic Republic of Congo alone has $214 trillion in untapped mineral wealth. At other times, U.S. officials do not hold Africans to the same standards as they would Europeans or Asians.
Consider the case of Eritrea: Upon winning its independence in 1993, Eritrea should have thrived. Its capital Asmara is one of the world’s loveliest, a world heritage site with a moderate climate and some of the best preserved art deco architecture. Eritrea’s independence leader, Isaias Afwerki, was genuinely popular. Eritrea also had a cohesive enough history and population that its religious and ethnic diversity could be more assets than a source of instability. Its strategic position along the Red Sea imbued Eritrea with commercial potential about which landlocked African countries could only dream. Culturally, Eritreans were primed to thrive.
Unfortunately, Isaias had other ideas. While he could have won any election initially, he chose to forego them entirely, not even undertaking a pantomime process as dictators do in Egypt or Azerbaijan. Nor do war heroes or liberation necessarily make good stewards of government. Such was the case with Isaias. He did not understand economics, nor did he care. Eritrea’s standard of living plummeted.
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