Ethiopia, Eritrea agree to reopen embassies

By Addis Getachew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who is on a three-day visit to former rival Eritrea, on Sunday announced that the two countries have agreed to reopen embassies in their capitals and also to resume flights.

“We have agreed to resume diplomatic relations; there would no more be the sad memory of war between the governments and peoples of the two countries,” he said at a high-level gathering the Eritrean capital Asmara.

Earlier, a few hours after the Prime Minister’s arrival in Asmara, telecommunication services that had been down for more than 20 years has come to life.

Upon arrival at the Asmara airport, Ahmed received a rapturous welcome with Eritreans out on the streets singing and chanting, spreading flowers and popcorn on the streets in a typical Eritrean tradition.

In May this year, Ethiopia announced that it would implement the December 2000 Algiers agreement and the decisions of the International Boundary Commission.

The Algiers agreement came after the two neighbors fought a bloody war from 1998-2000 in which 70,000-80,000 people perished on both sides.

The international boundary commission later decided that Badme, a borderland that was a flashpoint of the conflict, belonged to Eritrea while it ruled that Eritrea should compensate Ethiopia for the huge amount of Ethiopian shipment confiscated in Assab Port.

Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia in 1993.