Kenya strengthens link with Ethiopia

Press, 10 April 1980, Page 24

Kenya strengthens link with Ethiopia

By

ALASTAIR

MATHESON in Nairobi Kenya has reaffirmed its close military 7 alliance with Ethiopia, established when President Moi visited Addis Ababa more than a year ago.

It has agreed to join Ethiopia to monitor Somalia's military activities “in view of Somalia’s expansionist tendencies.’’ This agreement with the Marxist regime of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam was the outcome of a conference in Mombasa between the Kenyans and a

delegation from Ethiopia led by the Foreign Minister (Dr Feleke Giorgis).

In what could be a drive to isolate Somalia in the strategic Horn of Africa, the Ethiopians recently patched up their three-year-old quarrel with President Numeiry of ’ the Sudan.

This came after a visit from the Sudanese VicePresident (Abdel Hamid Khalil) during which the Sudan agreed not to aid Eritrean rebels who had been using the Sudan as their contact with the outside world.

In Nairobi recently, Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister confirmed that his country’s resumption of friendly relations with the Sudan had been “as a result, of heeding Kenya’s appeal to remove all misunderstandings between us and the Sudan.” These moves must confound the plans of American military and State Department officials who have been working to achieve a closer union between pro-Western Kenya, the Sudan and Somalia, to neutralise Soviet and

Cuban unfluence exercised from Ethiopia. In addition to being outspokenly critical of United States efforts to obtain the use of the Somali port of Berbera, Addis Ababa has been especially sensitive tp American plans to develop its base on the Britishowned atoll of Diego Garcia for the use of United States submarines and warships, as well as long-range bombers moved in from the Pacific. In Nairobi, the wish to mollify Washington comes second to a determination to prevent the Somalis wresting large tracts of territory from Kenya and Ethiopia. Trade, communications and mutual security lie behind the new accord between Addis Ababa and Khartoum. In return for denying the use of eastern Sudan to the Eritreans, Khartoum hopes that Ethiopia will prevent Leftwing Sudanese dissidents from infiltrating into the Sudan to add to the many difficulties which Numeiry faces, especially with elections taking place this month.—Copyright, L.O.S.