Djibouti and Eritrea come closer to all out war

[minionofmidas]

Eritrea's weird. Just plain weird.
And it's what happens when you treat people that don't deserve it like crap and they win anyways - they begin to deserve their past treatment.

[minionofmidas]

So Djibouti is quasi-allied with Ethiopia now?

They have close economic relations and a common enemy for quite a while, so yes.
Apparently Eritrea is an extremely militarized country, with conscription for both men and women and the second largest amount of active troops per capita in the world. They've also had military conflicts with all of their neighbours and their president said that war build up character. But this time they've picked up the wrong country, as Djibouti has both US and french troops on its territory, and the US has already poor relations with Eritrea.

I don't think the Eritreans (well the leadership - although that mind framework was widespread among the population back when the government had wide popular support) care one jot.

[minionofmidas]

So Djibouti is quasi-allied with Ethiopia now?

They have close economic relations and a common enemy for quite a while, so yes.
Apparently Eritrea is an extremely militarized country, with conscription for both men and women and the second largest amount of active troops per capita in the world. They've also had military conflicts with all of their neighbours and their president said that war build up character. But this time they've picked up the wrong country, as Djibouti has both US and french troops on its territory, and the US has already poor relations with Eritrea.

I don't think the Eritreans (well the leadership - although that mind framework was widespread among the population back when the government had wide popular support) care one jot.

Care about their poor relations with the US or care about the fact that they'll blunder into a war they will probably lose?

Care about the evil bastard they're up against's connections. They've won against bigger odds before.

[minionofmidas]

So Djibouti is quasi-allied with Ethiopia now?

They have close economic relations and a common enemy for quite a while, so yes.
Apparently Eritrea is an extremely militarized country, with conscription for both men and women and the second largest amount of active troops per capita in the world. They've also had military conflicts with all of their neighbours and their president said that war build up character. But this time they've picked up the wrong country, as Djibouti has both US and french troops on its territory, and the US has already poor relations with Eritrea.

I don't think the Eritreans (well the leadership - although that mind framework was widespread among the population back when the government had wide popular support) care one jot.

Care about their poor relations with the US or care about the fact that they'll blunder into a war they will probably lose?

Care about the evil bastard they're up against's connections. They've won against bigger odds before.

They did hold out for a long time against Ethiopia, but they were defeated in the end.

Uh... they won their independence, bringing down Africa's second biggest army (and I mean really down... they basically took over Ethiopia for a few months.) In 1991.
Eritrea has at least been unaffected by ethnic conflicts.
[/quote]A pretty amazing factoid, but yes it's broadly (not entirely) true.

[minionofmidas]

Let's not forget that there was anti-government insurection in Ethiopia at the same time, which played an even more significant role.

...of course. But was directly related to the long, losing civil war in Eritrea.