Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki pledged to resolve his country’s dispute with Ethiopia on Saturday in a historic visit to Addis Ababa aimed at cementing peace less than a week after the nations declared an end to two decades of conflict.
President Isaias arrived in the Ethiopian capital just five days after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Eritrea as part of a peace process aimed at ending years of animosity between the neighbours.
He started his three-day visit at Addis Ababa’s airport, where he and PM Abiy strode down a red carpet as a brass band played and traditional dancers cheered. The leaders then drove into the city on a road lined with thousands of people dressed in white shawls and waving palm fronds as Ethiopian and Eritrean flags flew side-by-side from lamp posts.
Scenes similar to what was accorded PM Abiy during his historic visit to the Eritrean capital, Asmara, were seen. Thousands lined the streets from the airport to the presidential palace cheering and joyfully welcoming the visiting president. Afterwards, Isaias toured an industrial park in Hawassa.
The two leaders shared laughs and hugs at an official lunch on Saturday as PM Abiy said his counterpart was “beloved, respected and missed by the Ethiopian people”. “We are no longer people of two countries. We are one,” President Isaias Afwerki told political and cultural figures gathered in a palace built during Ethiopia’s imperial days. “We’ll go forward together.”
On Sunday evening, the two men addressed a gathering of residents at Addis Ababa’s Millenium Hall. As they entered the entered the Millennium Hall on Sunday evening, Abiy and Isaias held hands and waved at the crowd, prompting loud cheers. Musicians performed under portraits of the two leaders.
“We have chosen to tread a path and work together for development, prosperity and peace, having overcome a conspiracy of hatred, revenge and destruction,” President Isaias told the audience.
