Once Bitter Foes, Ethiopia, Eritrea Promise `Bridge of Love’

ADDIS ABABA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a declaration of peace and agreed to re-establish key economic links after an unprecedented summit between the Horn of Africa nations’ leaders that marked the end of almost two decades of strife.

The announcements by an Eritrean official and the Ethiopian state-owned broadcaster Fana followed Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s visit to the Eritrean capital, Asmara, on Sunday for talks with President Isaias Afwerki and their decision to restore diplomatic relations. Landlocked Ethiopia will resume using Eritrea’s ports, which have been closed to it since Eritrea won independence in the early 1990s, and flights, telecommunications links and embassies are being re-established.

 “To all Ethiopians and Eritreans, congratulations,” Abiy said during the visit in a television address broadcast in both countries. “There is no border between Ethiopia and Eritrea; instead we have built a bridge of love.”

Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel said on Twitter that the two leaders Monday signed a joint declaration that ended the state of war and pledged cooperation in political, economic and security matters.

The rapprochement between the former bitter enemies was another sign of sweeping change in Ethiopia since Abiy, 42, took office in April. Facing unrest, protests and displacement of people that have threatened to derail a boom in Africa’s fastest growing economy, Abiy and his ruling party lifted a state of emergency and accelerated long-awaited market reforms.

‘Moving Forward’
With his trip to Asmara, Abiy has begun to close a bloody chapter in his nation’s history: a 1998-2000 border war that claimed as many as 100,000 lives and left thousands of Ethiopian and Eritrean families divided.

“Moving forward, war is not needed between Ethiopia and Eritrea,” Abiy said in the broadcast. “What we need is to work hard and for peace to rapidly transform and repay the debt of the 20 years and transform the relations of the two countries to greater heights.”

Isaias at a state dinner congratulated Abiy on “the bold political choice he has taken that will recoup lost time and opportunity in the past 20 years,” Eritrean minister Yemane said on Twitter.

Abiy’s administration has also announced plans to open up state monopolies including sugar, airlines, and telecommunications to foreign investors. The ruling coalition, which holds all seats in parliament, has begun to allow opposition political groups and thousands of detainees have been released.

Eritrea, which sits on a key shipping strait linking the Red Sea and Suez Canal, is a one-party state where adults must undertake 18 months of government service. Rights groups say the period is extended indefinitely for many, fueling a wave of migration.

National Service
As recently as 2015, Eritreans were the fourth-biggest group risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean, after Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis, according to the United Nations. Eritrea’s government has said the national service program is necessary to defend itself from Ethiopia and describes those fleeing overseas as economic migrants, not refugees.

Biniam Ghebremichael, a former judge in Eritrea who’s now a San Francisco-based lawyer and consultant, described the visit as “a new chapter” that “will also help revive the stalled democratization process in Eritrea.”

Until now, Ethiopia has been forced to rely on Djibouti and Sudan for access to the sea. But since Abiy came to office, the authorities in Addis Ababa have moved quickly to improve the nation’s transportation links to the outside world and announced plans to reestablish a navy disbanded in 1996.

In May, Abiy’s government agreed to develop Port Sudan on the Red Sea and to swap shares in state-owned ports, airlines, and telecommunications with Djibouti. It also plans to acquire land at Kenya’s Lamu Port for “logistical facilitation,” according to a joint statement issued after a meeting between Abiy and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Earlier this year, Ethiopia also took a stake in a port in Somaliland, a semi-autonomous part of Somalia that aspires to statehood and borders Djibouti.

Source: Bloomberg Business News