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Though it remains to be one of the most economically deprived sub-regions in the world, Sub-Saharan Africa scores highest on the number of countries involved in violent ethnic conflicts around the world. Due to the legacy of colonialism, several ethnic groups that claim homogeneity are today straddling across international boundaries between neighbouring states. And hence, ethnic conflicts in those states definitely have a spill-over effect across the borders as trans-boundary alliances among states and kin groups are inevitable. Meanwhile, changes in the political order of the region have a significant influence over the escalation and intensification of conflicts between societies straddled along national borders. Thus, implementations of unilateral resolution attempts by host states are usually falling short of success. This case study proves the above described hypotheses in such a way that dynamics in regional political orders have been contributing to the escalation of the long-lasting conflicts between the Afar and Issa/Somali people whose homeland straddles the borders of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somaliland. Arrival of French and Italian colonial powers in the Horn region, birth of new states of Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea as well as inter-state disputes of Ethio-Somalia, Ethio-Eritrea and Eritro-Djibouti have an extensive influence on the escalation of this age-old conflict. Besides, the downfall of General Barre's and Colonel Mengistu's régimes in Mogadishu and Addis Ababa has considerably influenced the conflict between the Afar and Issa/Somali both in Ethiopia and Djibouti where both ethnicities commonly live. Apart from dynamics in the regional political orders within the Horn states, one of the hasty aspects of the new world order, terrorism, casts its shadow over this conflict particularly in the Republic of Djibouti. In addition to the natural adverse climatic condition that usually causes drought and famine in the lowlands inhabited by the Afar and Somali people, this study further emphasizes and analyses the impact of host states' national politico-economic factors (both in Ethiopia and Djibouti) that aggravate the tension and further complicate the map of the conflict. Implementations of ill-conceived and regional biased development schemes, organized illicit trade chains, rampant corruption and control of state apparatus by narrow family networks have thereby further aggravated armed confrontations between neighbouring pastoralists of the Afar and Issa/Somali. Moreover, traditional conflict resolution mechanisms are weakened and hence possibilities to restore peaceful co-existence among the two neighboring communities are alarmingly being eroded. Besides, findings of the study also indicate that all unilateral resolution efforts undertaken by individual states of Ethiopia and Djibouti have been fruitless since the time of colonial rules. Therefore, this conflict has several facets and needs a comprehensive and sub-regional peace strategy to break the conflict trap and rebuild trust among various stakeholders in the Horn region.

"Wie in vielen Teilen Afrikas haben die kolonialen Grenzziehungen auch in den heutigen Staaten am Horn von Afrika das politische Geschehen wesentlich geprägt. Da die Grenzziehungen ausschließlich auf den Interessen der europäischen Expansionsstaaten beruhten, die den ethnischen Aufbau der Gesellschaften vollkommen ignorierten, wurden gleichartige ethnisch-linguistische Gruppen getrennt und fanden sich in zwei oder mehreren aneinandergrenzenden Staaten wieder. Diese Teilungen, die sowohl die traditionellen Verwaltungen als auch die sozioökonomischen Systeme belasteten, schürten die Konflikte in der Region am Horn von Afrika noch zusätzlich. Das Land des homogenen nomadischen Volkes der Afar wurde zwischen drei Staaten (Äthiopien, Eritrea und Djibouti) aufgeteilt. Im Anschluss an ihren anti-kolonialen Widerstand sahen sich die Afar mit administrativen Gebietsteilungen und einer Marginalisierung durch die zentralen Mächte in diesen drei Staaten konfrontiert. Ihr ein halbes Jahrhundert andauernder Kampf um Selbstbestimmung wurde als Weg hin zu einem unabhängigen Staat begriffen. Doch ist die Bildung eines Staates Afarria oder eines 'Afar-Dreiecks' tatsächlich das endgültige Ziel der politischen Bewegungen der Afar? Was bedeuten Einheit und Selbstbestimmung für sie? Dieser Aufsatz zeichnet den Beginn der modernen politischen Orientierung der Afar und ihren Kampf von der Zeit des europäischen Kolonialismus bis zur Dominierung durch die nationalen Regierungen am Horn von Afrika nach." (Autorenreferat)