Prof. Andreas Eshete organises High Level Forum on security

By T, De Birhan Staffer

19 March 2012

Professor Andreas Eshete

Professor Andreas Eshete, CEO and “initiator” of Tana High Level Forum and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Meles with the Rank of a Minister, is organising a high level security forum in Africa called Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa 14-15 April, 2012 in Bahir Dar, Kuriftu Resort , Tana, Ethiopia. As part of the preparations for the Tana High-Level Forum, an experts' pre-Forum workshop was held on 29 and 30 September, 2011 in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria serves as the first Chairperson of the Forum.

The 2012 Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa is set to dwell on two themes: State fragility and the prospects of peace in Africa, with a focus on clusters of protracted conflict and regional response; and Managing diversity to promote peace and stability, focussing on the African Peer Review Mechanism and diversity governance as structural prevention, according to sources. The overarching theme is the question of the “African voice in the global security agenda”.  Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) of Addis Ababa University has been commissioned to act as the Forum's secretariat.

“A fast-growing economy, grand hydropower schemes and one of Africa’s biggest armies all reinforce Ethiopia’s regional dominance. Leaders from China, India, Europe, Japan, Turkey, the United States and across Africa are expected at what the government plans as a show of Ethiopia’s regional leadership.” Africa Confidential reported in its recent issue assesing the upcoming Forum. IPSS receives medium-term institutional core funding from Germany. The organisation of the Forum is sponsored by the governments of Ethiopia and Germany. 

Andreas had served as the President of Addis Abeba University from 2003 to 2011.

Analysts accuse the Ethiopian government of exploiting the “Security Agenda” to prolong its reign by winning the Achilles heel of Western powers and intensify tyranny inside Ethiopia.