Participants in the Italian-African Summit before the start of the opening session of the Senate in Rome (Anatolia)

With broad smiles, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received - from Italian Defense Minister Guidoa Cozzetto "Tsehi" - the first aircraft manufactured in his country in 1935 and seized by the Italian government in its famous invasion of Abyssinia in the 1930s.

This image summarizes Rome's attempt to reshape the relationship with the Horn of Africa, its former area of ​​influence, and to build a new partnership away from the image of the colonizer stored in the memory of its people. This new endeavor falls within a remarkable Italian activity witnessed in recent years to strengthen Rome's presence in the region.

The extreme importance that Italy attaches to this area located in the east of the African continent is evident in its classification among the priority areas in the strategic partnership document with Africa issued in 2020, in light of many issues that Rome has in mind in the region, most notably the fight against irregular migration.

Italy's constant headache

As a result of its geographical location in southern Europe, Italy has become, in recent years, a major entry point for the movement of irregular migrants to the Old Continent, whose numbers in 2021 and 2022 increased to 172,000, before rising later, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency.

In this context, the Horn of Africa represents one of the main sources of this flow of migrants, as statistics - issued by the Italian “ISUM” Foundation, which specializes in immigration affairs and irregular migrants - place Eritrea alone among the ten nationalities that most reach Italian shores. Between 2014 and 2022, while Eritreans represented 25% of this category in some years.

This continuous flow has made the issue of irregular migration a subject of controversy and competition, and a profitable stock in the Italian political stock exchange, pushing the Horn of Africa to the top of Rome’s priorities, as officials have visited successive countries in the region carrying in their portfolios promises to voters to find a solution to this dilemma.

The current Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni, was no exception, as she pledged to stop the human waves coming from Africa, which means that her success in making a major breakthrough in this file will translate into a huge increase in her political and popular credit, and will also reduce the economic burdens allocated to meeting the needs of these migrants, as it reached Spending on accommodation centers and reception services will exceed two billion euros in 2022, down from 2.77 billion in 2018.

In addition to the above, Rome is concerned with getting rid of the criticism that has affected its policy related to combating irregular migration, as appears in the report issued by Human Rights Watch for the year 2023, which described some of the Italian government’s programs as “flawed.”

The Ethiopian Prime Minister in a meeting with his Italian counterpart Meloni (Anatolia)

Energy bridge

Investment in the field of energy represents one of Italy's priorities related to the Horn of Africa, within the ambition that Meloni announced at the beginning of this year, which is to transform her country into an energy center for Europe, taking advantage of its location on the shores of the Mediterranean as an entrance to the Old Continent.

In his article, the President of the European Council on Foreign Relations, Arturo Varvelli, believes that the war in Ukraine and its repercussions have fueled this Italian ambition, as the tension will poison European-Russian relations for a long time regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, which practically means the death of the German dream of becoming the main transit point for Russian gas to make way for it. There is room for projects for others, including Rome.

In this context, the Horn of Africa gains great importance as it contains large quantities of unextracted oil and gas reserves. Ethiopia announced the discovery of 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the Somali region, while some geological surveys estimate that Somali waters contain large oil reserves amounting to 30 Billion barrels.

The Italian company Eni is one of the largest investors in the field of energy in East Africa, and it has activities in Somali offshore wells.

Economic motives

The Italian orientation towards Africa in the last decade was driven by Rome's quest to search for an outlet to escape from a long period of economic difficulties associated with the 2008 global financial crisis and its repercussions, and the good economic performance of many sub-Saharan African countries, which urged Rome to encourage its companies to invest in the African continent.

In this context, trade exchange between Rome and Addis Ababa witnessed great leaps, as Italy became the first exporter to Ethiopia and its third importer at the European level.

Italian investments in the Horn of Africa include work in various fields, as the Italian energy giant (Eni) is active in the Lamu Basin in Kenya, in addition to its investments in the field of biofuels in the country itself in projects that provide 25,000 job opportunities. The activity of Italian businessmen has also emerged in the field of infrastructure, where The giant WeBuild Company built the Gibe III and Renaissance Dams in Ethiopia.

Rome is trying to reshape the relationship with the Horn of Africa and build a new partnership away from the image of the colonizer (Anatolia)

Regional stability

Italy's national strategy towards Africa, issued in 2020, called for Rome to play a leadership role in ensuring stability and peace in the Horn of Africa, as the various forms of security threats and unrest witnessed by the region lead to it becoming one of the hotspots of irregular migration to Europe via Italy.

The region's proximity to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait has increased the region's geopolitical and geoeconomic importance for Rome, as this waterway constitutes an essential crossing for international trade, in which Italy embodies one of the seven largest economies in the world.

In this context, Rome was active in Operation Atlanta to combat piracy on the Somali shores. It also established a military base in Djibouti, in addition to its contribution to training the Somali police and army. Recently, it became the most prominent advocate for the formation of a European naval force in the Red Sea to confront the challenges posed by Houthi activity recently.

Plan mate

The Italian-African Summit was an opportunity for Prime Minister Meloni to announce her vision called the “Italian-African Strategic Plan: Plan Mattei”, which will represent the backbone of Italian policy towards Africa, and whose repercussions will be reflected in Rome’s activity in the Horn of Africa.

The plan represents a point where Rome's strategic interests in the African continent are intertwined, and is based on a broad program of investments and partnerships in the energy sector, while accelerating the development of African countries in a way that contributes to curbing irregular migration flows, through development cooperation, supporting entrepreneurship, and promoting sustainable and shared development.

Through this plan, Meloni is trying to present a different approach, based on partnership and equality, away from the exploitation that has characterized the policies of other countries such as France, and the discontent of Africans. It is an approach with a geopolitical dimension that aims to reserve a position for Rome on a continent that has turned into an arena of intense conflict between international and regional powers in what is described as: “The New Scramble for Africa.”

Development cooperation diplomacy

One aspect of Italy's presence in the region is its development cooperation diplomacy, which has been recognized as "an integral part of Italian foreign policy" through bilateral and multilateral partnerships.

In this context, Italian researcher Nino Sergi states that the countries of the Horn of Africa are among the countries given priority in Italian cooperation programs, and in the period from 2021 to 2023 the focus was mainly on Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan.

Between 2021 and 2023, statistics from the Italian Development Cooperation Agency indicate that it spent approximately 110 million euros in Ethiopia alone, and approximately 43 million euros in Somalia, in activities ranging from mining, education, training, health, manufacturing, and emergency response.

Afwerki’s participation in the Italy-Africa Summit indicates Eritrea’s openness to Europe (Anatolia)

Eritrea surprise the summit

The interest of the countries of the Century in the relationship with Italy is evident in the participation of their leaders in various bilateral and collective summits, while the participation of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki in the Italian-African summit was a remarkable event, as it was his first visit to the European continent in nearly a decade.

Afwerki's multiple meetings in Rome reveal Eritrea's desire to obtain investments and aid unconditional on implementing internal reforms related to Asmara's human rights record, which a UN report accuses of systematically committing practices that may amount to crimes against humanity.

Eritrea's participation also indicates openness to developing its ties with Europe through the gate of Rome, which has maintained a degree of warmth in the relationship between the two parties, unlike the rest of the countries of the Western system.

Somalia is in the midst of battle

In addition to aid and investments, security and military files are a priority in Mogadishu, which is interested in obtaining support to develop its ability to fight the Al-Shabaab Al-Mujahideen movement, including helping to lift the UN embargo on arms imports, which was canceled in December 2023, more than 3 decades after it was approved. .

On the other hand, Mogadishu is mobilizing international support in its diplomatic battle to undermine Ethiopian steps towards obtaining a port and a naval base in exchange for recognizing the independence of the breakaway Somaliland region, as Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud stated in his speech at the summit that “cooperation between Africa and Italy cannot be effective if it is violated.” An African country borders another country, and an example of this is Ethiopia’s failed attempt to interfere in the independence of our country.”

Ethiopia and economic restoration

As for Ethiopia, which is thirsty for investments and economic support, the partnership with Rome appears to be one of the levers for its economy, which is suffering as a result of the war on Tigray and its repercussions.

Addis Ababa is also looking forward to restoring Western support for its role as a dominant ally in the Horn of Africa, which has witnessed a decline as a result of the severe tension that characterized the relationship of the Abiy Ahmed government with the United States and the Western system against the backdrop of many files, most notably the position on the war in Tigray.

Source: Al Jazeera