Eritrea: Hug It Out

ERITREA

Hug It Out

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed started his groundbreaking visit to Eritrea by wrapping Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki in a hug on the tarmac – a dramatic emblem of the burgeoning thaw in tensions between the two countries.

It’s the first time in two decades that the leaders of the two countries met and follows Abiy’s surprise decision last month to accept the terms of a peace deal signed in the year 2000. It prompted a flood of emotion in the Eritrean capital of Asmara, NPR reported.

The decades-long conflict has killed tens of thousands of people.

With the visit, a direct international telephone connection was restored between the two countries for the first time in 20 years, another confidence-building measure following Abiy’s announcement that Ethiopian Airlines would resume flights to Eritrea.

Already moving to liberalize a repressive regime at home, reconciliation with Abiy could encourage similar progress next door by removing Isaias’ excuse for maintaining “a permanent state of military readiness,” said University of London scholar Martin Plaut.

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