JEDDAH (Halbeeg News) – Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki will today attend a summit in Saudi Arabia to sign a peace agreement in the context of normalization of relations.
PM Abiy arrived in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Saturday where was received at the King Abdulaziz International Airport by Prince Abdullah bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Governor of Makkah Region.
HE PM Abiy Ahmed arrived in Jeddah, #SaudiArabia upon the invitation of HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to attend a tripartite summit. The Summit is organized following the historic peace deal between #Ethiopia & #Eritrea & aims to discuss on peace and developing the region. pic.twitter.com/w9zxACS4G5
— Fitsum Arega (@fitsumaregaa) September 15, 2018
Eritrean delegation led by President Afwerki departed to Jeddah town on Saturday afternoon.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the President of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat will join the leaders of the two African countries in the Saudi capital of Jeddah to attend the ceremony hosted by King Salman bin Abdulaziz.
“I believe this is a further agreement helping to cement the positive relations between them,” Farhan Haq, spokesman for the Secretary-General, said in a news conference.
Haq said Guterres was going only to visit and would not be a party to the agreement between the two sides.
Both countries have begun to warm relations after decades of tension.
President Isaias Afwerki departed to Saudi Arabia in late afternoon hours today. President Isaias & Prime Minister Abiy will attend official ceremony in Jeddah tomorrow where z Peace Agreement of 9 July will be graced by the presence of the Saudi King, UNSG & AU Commission Pre. pic.twitter.com/j8TojHL5uL
— Yemane G. Meskel 🇪🇷 (@hawelti) September 15, 2018
Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia in 1993, and from 1998 to 2000 the two countries fought a bloody war in which an estimated 70,000 people perished on both sides.
The two countries broke two decades of tension after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed extended an olive branch to the Eritrean president in his inaugural speech in April.
Discussion about this post