In this comprehensive special interview on Sovereign Media, CEO Ahmed Kaballo sat down with veteran communist and former Ethiopian diplomat Mohamed Hassan to dissect the issues facing the Horn of Africa through an anti-imperial lens.
Covering the interconnected crises spanning Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia, Hassan explored how imperialist powers continue to sabotage the region.
The discussion begins with Ethiopia, which Hassan argues has been reduced to a de-facto colony of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through financial capture, gold smuggling, and proxy warfare.
He detailed how this sub-imperial arrangement drives two strategies: firstly, orchestrating massive gold smuggling out of Sudan to enrich Abu Dhabi, and secondly, funneling weapons, training, and mercenaries to fuel the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia’s war on the Sudanese people.
The discussion then shifted to Eritrea, with Hassan explaining how Asmara became a target for Western economic and political quarantine following its 1993 independence due its commitment to sovereignty.
The former diplomat cited Eritrea’s rejection of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank debt traps and banning of western NGOs, also noting how Asmara’s nationbuilding through national service attracted the ire of Western powers.
Finally, moving beyond the western narrative of inherent clan violence in Somalia, Hassan blames the nation’s devastation on imperialism and the global oil industry, drawing atttention to contracts engineered by western energy conglomerates that would have siphoned away Somalia’s natural wealth while leaving little for the local population.
Furthermore, Hassan, who is of Somali origin, blamed the west for diluting Somali national consciousness and empowering a rootless parasite class that exploits clanism to serve foreign interests.
Feel free to watch the full video for insights from a veteran African communist on how resource-colonialism, foreign proxy wars, and domestic puppet regimes are used to crush the continent’s sovereignty.