The 2018 Agreement on Peace Between Ethiopia and Eritrea and Its Impact on the Horn of Africa Region, in de Guttry

The failed implementation of the 2000 Algiers peace treaties originated a long stalemate period between Ethiopia and Eritrea which ended only in 2018 when a new Agreement on Peace was signed by the two States. The aim of the present chapter is to critically analyse the 2018 Agreement which represents a historic landmark as emphasised in the decision to award the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali ‘for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea’. The first part of the chapter will focus on the political and legal framework in which the agreement has been conceived and developed. The analysis will then shift to the content of the Agreement on Peace and to the new mechanism that has been envisaged to oversee its implementation. Finally, it will be investigated whether and to what extent, more than two years after its signature, the obligations codified therein have been implemented and which has been the role of the international community to consolidate this difficult peace process whose success is of crucial importance for the whole Horn of Africa region.