The 30-minute China in Africa Podcast program for 25 June 2022 was titled "How Did China Do in Its First Horn of Africa Peace Conference?" with Aly Verjee, US Institute of Peace, interviewed by Cobus van Staden.
This two-day conference took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia under the direction of China's Horn of Africa special envoy, Xue Bing. Senior government officials represented Horn of Africa countries; there were no non-state actors.
Verjee said that the African governments did not demonstrate a great deal of enthusiasm in having yet another outside mediator involved in Horn of Africa conflicts. For its part, China's policy of non-interference limits its ability to mediate internal conflicts such as the civil war in Ethiopia. Verjee described the conference as symbolic rather than having practical results. There was no specific agenda, and it had no clear impact. In some ways it looked like a self-promotion event for China.
