A high-level delegation from Eritrea is in neighboring Ethiopia for historic talks that could bring an end to one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts.
FILE – President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea addresses the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Sept. 23, 2011.
The Eritrean delegation arrived in Addis Ababa Tuesday.
Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki pledged to send the delegation last week during his country’s Martyrs Day observance in the capital, Asmara. President Afwerki’s pledge was in response to one made earlier this month by Ethiopia’s new reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that he will honor a deal signed in 2000 to end a two-year border war.
Ethiopia had long refused to accept the terms of the deal, which included withdrawing from the border town of Badme.
Eritrea, a former province of Ethiopia, broke away in 1993.
– VOA
