Yet 2018 saw positive steps towards resolving some of the world’s most difficult border conflicts, between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and Ethiopia and Eritrea. Nonetheless, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the authoritarian president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, imposed unilateral border controls. Changes in leadership in Uzbekistan and Ethiopia were crucial in restarting boundary delimitation and border management processes that had become deadlocked. More migrants die each year because of the EU’s militarised border controls than at any other border on Earth. When it comes to border politics, however, they could do a lot worse than look to Uzbekistan and Ethiopia in 2019.

Source: Ethiopian News January 07, 2019 12:00 UTC