Ethiopia appoints Ambassador to Eritrea after 20 years

Ethiopia on Thursday appointed Redwan Hussein as its Ambassador to Eritrea.

In a statement in Addis Ababa, the Spokesperson Office, Ethiopia Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), said the appointment of Hussein was to see further strengthen diplomatic thaw (stop being frozen) with Eritrea.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody two-year border war from 1998 to 2000 that killed estimated 70,000 people from both sides.

The war ended December following the 2000 Algiers peace agreement, but it left the two countries in a state of bitter armed stand-off.

Earlier this month, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed paid a two-day state visit to Eritrea during which the two countries signed a peace declaration formally ending two decades of mutual hostility.

On Monday, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki re-opened the Eritrean embassy in Ethiopia at the end of three-day state visit to Addis Ababa, the first by Afwerki to Ethiopia in 22 years.

The visit by Afwerki and Ahmed to each other’s countries came in a month of fast- moving events.

The Executive Committee of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) decided on June 5 to fully accept the Algiers peace agreement.

(Xinhua/NAN)