Summit aims to end 20-year feud between Ethiopia and Eritrea

It was an emotional meeting for the leaders of long-time rivals Ethiopia and Eritrea, who met for the first time in nearly two decades yesterday amid a dramatic diplomatic thaw.

Ethiopia’s reformist new prime minister Abiy Ahmed arrived in Eritrea’s capital, Asmara, to be welcomed by president Isaias Afwerki.

Crowds danced and sang for the leaders and streets were hung with Ethiopian and Eritrean flags. Mr Abiy and Mr Afwerki then travelled across the capital in a large motorcade as people wearing T-shirts with photos of the two leaders cheered.

The visit comes a month after Mr Abiy surprised people by fully accepting a peace deal that ended a two-year border war between the two countries. Ethiopia and Eritrea have not had diplomatic ties since the fighting began in 1998, with Mr Abiy himself fighting in the war, and the countries have clashed since then in one of Africa’s longestrunning conflicts.

Mr Abiy’s chief of staff, Fitsum Arega, said on Twitter that the visit aims to “further deepen efforts to bring about lasting peace”.

He added: “Our two nations share a history and bond like no other. We can now overcome two decades of mistrust and move in a new direction.”

Ethiopians expressed welcome shock at the historic meeting, which was shown live on state TV.

“Historic. The glass ceiling has been broken,” one resident, Shewit Wudassie, wrote on Facebook.

The decision to fully accept the peace deal was the most surprising reform yet announced by Ethiopia’s 42-year-old prime minister, who took office in April and quickly set in motion a wave of reforms, freeing journalists and opposition figures from prison, opening up the staterun economy and unblocking hundreds of websites after years of anti-government protests demanding more freedoms.

Days after the announcement, Mr Afwerki noted “positive signals” from Ethiopia and sent the first official delegation in two decades to “gauge current developments directly and in depth” to plan future steps.

While Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous nation and one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, tiny Eritrea is one of the world’s most closed-off nations, ruled by Mr Afwerki since gaining independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after years of rebel warfare.

However, the two countries share close cultural ties.

Eritrea is a major source of migrants fleeing toward Europe, Israel and African nations in recent years as human rights groups criticise its harsh military conscription laws.