Ethiopian and Eritrean Leaders in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia To Cement Their Peace Treaty

FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Ethiopian and Eritrean Leaders in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia To Cement Their Peace Treaty

Sept. 16, 2018 (EIRNS)—In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in the presence of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki signed an accord today to cement their recently established peace along the borders, the Washington Post reports.

Abiy and Afwerki had signed a “Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship” on July 9, ending 20 years of enmity, and formally restoring diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea. “This is a further agreement helping to cement the positive relations between them,” UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Sept. 14.

China’s policies, seen most recently in the Beijing Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), have facilitated the progressive coming-together of all the countries of the Horn of Africa.

Landlocked Ethiopia fought a bloody war with Eritrea from 1998 to 2000 over a border dispute, and that conflict had ended in an uneasy peace with Eritrea, which earlier fought a decades-long war of independence from Ethiopia. The signing ceremony today in Saudi Arabia also highlights the growing importance Arab Gulf nations put on East Africa, AP stated.