Eritrea leader visits Ethiopia amid big thaw
Landmark trip comes on heels of historic peace deal
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — To dancing and cheers, Eritrea’s longtime president arrived in Ethiopia for his first visit in 22 years Saturday amid a dramatic diplomatic thaw between the once-bitter rivals.
“This is a historic day for all of us,” President Isaias Afwerki said. “Anyone who thinks the people of Eritrea and Ethiopia are separated is considered as naive from now on.”
Thousands turned out in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, under tight security to welcome Isaias, whose three-day visit is the latest step in ending a long state of war.
Ethiopia’s reformist new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed made a similar visit to Eritrea’s capital last weekend, welcomed by Isaias with hugs and laughter.
The 42-year-old Abiy broke the ice last month by embracing a peace deal that ended a 1998-2000 border war that killed tens of thousands and left families separated. A series of diplomatic breakthroughs quickly followed as one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts neared an end.
Some excited Ethiopians have compared the restoration of relations with one of the world’s most closed-off countries to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Telephone links have opened and the first scheduled Ethiopian Airlines flights to Eritrea begin Wednesday.
A visibly moved Abiy on Saturday praised Ethiopians for their warm welcome of the Eritrean president with chants of “Isaias! Isaias!” and flag-waving. “I’m very emotional right now,” Abiy told a luncheon at the National Palace.
While the two countries share close cultural ties, the border war and Ethiopia’s later refusal to hand over disputed border areas was used by the 72-year-old Isaias to keep Eritrea in a state of military readiness, with a system of conscription that led thousands of Eritreans to flee toward Europe, Israel and elsewhere.