MOGADISHU (Halbeeg News) – Eritrea and Djibouti have agreed to normalise ties following a regional meeting, ministers said on Thursday, a decade after a border spat led to brief military clashes.
Fighting erupted along the disputed Dumeira area after Djibouti accused Asmara of sending troops across the border.
The Red Sea neighbours have been at odds ever since.
Djibouti Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf said his Eritrean counterpart Osman Saleh was visiting to “open a new era in relations between our two countries. Now it is the time for peace”.
Echoing the sentiment, Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Meles Alem welcomed the fact that the countries “have agreed to normalise relations and iron out their differences.”
Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu also said “After a long period of separation, Eritrea and Djibouti have agreed to restore ties,”
Delegates led by Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Salah.
Saleh was accompanied by his Somali counterpart Ahmed Isse Awad and Ethiopia’s Workneh Gebeyehu who travelled to Djibouti to “advance dialogue” between the two nations, Ethiopian state media reported.
Djibouti-Eritrea border row is a product of a colonial times dispute between the French and the Italians which escalated in 2008 when clashes erupted between Eritrean and Djiboutian soldiers.
In 2010, the dispute between these two nation was temporarily solved by a Qatar-mediated deal in 2010, but Djibouti insists that Eritrea allegedly has not returned a number of its soldiers captured during the clashes.
Discussion about this post