HIGHLIGHTS OF NIF ROLE IN THE GREATER HORN OF AFRICA

Eritrea
Indications are that Sudan has renewed its backing for EIJ offensive actions in Eritrea and to be behind the invigoration of the opposition Eritrean National Alliance (ENA) as a fighting force. Sudan's renewed interest in the Eritrean opposition is consistent with the regime's long-standing search for internal security and a counterweight to Asmara's support for Sudan's National Democratic Alliance, which includes the SPLM/A. After years of giving a cold shoulder to Eritrea 's dissident groups, the al-Bashir government has a new found interest in their activities. Sudan's ruling party, the National Congress Party, which replaced al-Turabi's NIF, has used two Eritrean occasions -- the Independence Commemoration of September 1 and the convention of the Eritrean Liberation Front-National Congress (ELF-NC) -- to provide material and moral support to the exiled Eritrean opposition parties.
Eritrean opposition groups who reportedly had grudgingly approached Ethiopia after giving up on Sudan are considering re-establishing home offices in Khartoum . Their decision is tentative because, according to one source, they are anxious about how receptive Sudan will be once a peace agreement with the SPLM is consolidated and SPLM rebel leader John Garang enters a government of national unity. Garang is considered a strong ally of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki.
Renewed Sudanese support for the EIJ appears to have led to a spate of sporadic attacks inside Eritrea . Operating from positions within Sudan , EIJ has planted mines in the buffer zone separating Eritrea and Ethiopia that is monitored by the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea . In March 2004, a mine blast killed five members of an Eritrean militia, including a colonel. The Eritrean government has implicated the EIJ in the killing of three civilians as a result of a bomb blast at a hotel in the town of Tesseney . Eritrea 's government also said an unspecified Jihadist organization based in Sudan was responsible for a May 2004 bomb blast in Barentu that killed five and wounded 90. The government also accused the EIJ of being behind the 2003 murder in western Eritrea of a British geologist and two local staff members of the international NGO, Mercy Corps. The EIJ denied involvement in these incidents.
The increased EIJ activity in 2003-2004 comes at a time when Sudan is giving material and moral support to the ENA, of which EIJ is a member (see discussion of EIJ). In September 2003, the ENA, which claimed its members were carrying out minor guerrilla attacks against President Isaias Afewerki's government, said that they would launch a joint armed action to end "dictatorship" in Asmara . According to Huroy Tadle Beyrow, ENA secretary general: "Each of the 13 organizations forming our alliance, having their troops on the ground, believe now in uniting our efforts in one army and moving for action inside Eritrea."

Arabic Forum