Ethiopia’s olive branch to Eritrea bears fruits

ADDIS ABABA, 27 Jun 2018 [Fik/News Sources]: A high-level Eritrean delegation on Tuesday arrived in capital Addis Ababa, a month after Ethiopia extended a hand of peace.

The two countries look at each other with suspicion after they fought a bloody war from 1998 to 2000, following a brief period of honeymoon after the cessation of Eritrea in 1993.

The delegation comprised Yemane Gebreab, presidential adviser, Osman Saleh, foreign minister, and Araya Desta, representative to the African Union.

The fast-paced normalizing of relations between the two countries was made possible after the coming to power in Ethiopia of Africa’s youngest Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who time and again expressed his firm stance on regional peace and integration.

Upon arrival at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, the Eritrean delegation received a warm welcome by the architect of this latest initiative Ahmed.

Later, Ahmed said that soon air travel would resume between the two countries.

Last month, Ethiopia offered to withdraw from Badme, a flashpoint of the two-year war that Eritrea claimed. An International Boundary Commission gave that chunk of borderland to Eritrea while it also ruled many areas along the 1,000 kilometer border to be part of Ethiopia, according to colonial boundary status quo.

The commission’s ruling which was part of the December 2000 Algiers agreement -- Algeria’s President Abdul Aziz Bouteflika mediated peace between the two neighboring nations -- also compelled Eritrea to compensate for the huge amount of Ethiopian shipments it confiscated at the Port of Asab.