Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki reopened his nation’s embassy in Ethiopia yesterday, more than 20 years after the two countries broke off relations when they went to war.
The embassy inauguration caps Isaias’ historic visit to the Ethiopian capital aimed at cementing peace less than a week after the two nations declared an end to two decades of conflict.
State-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corp (EBC) showed Isaias raising the Eritrean flag at the embassy in downtown Addis Ababa and accepting from Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed keys to the building, filled with dusty furniture that appeared untouched for years.
Photo: AP
The embassy visit marked the end of the Eritrean leader’s three-day stay in Ethiopia that also included a visit to an industrial park and a Sunday evening dinner and concert attended by thousands of Ethiopians.
“The high-level Eritrean government delegation headed by President Isaias just left Addis Ababa for Asmara,” EBC reported after Isaias departed the embassy.
Ethiopia and Eritrea expelled each other’s envoys at the start of a 1998 to 2000 border war that killed about 80,000 people.
Relations remained frozen after Ethiopia declined to accept a 2002 UN-backed border demarcation, leading to years of cold war between the two nations.
Last month, Abiy announced Ethiopia would accept the demarcation and cede land to Eritrea, paving the way for normalization.
Abiy has pursued an aggressive reform agenda since taking office in April, including making peace with Eritrea, releasing jailed dissidents and liberalizing parts of the economy.
Once a province of Ethiopia, Eritrea voted to leave in 1993 after a bloody, decades-long independence struggle.
Since the end of the war, Isaias has used the threat of Ethiopia aggression to justify a rash of repressive policies, including an indefinite national service program the UN has likened to slavery.
Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Meles Alem said that Ethiopia has not yet reopened its embassy in the Eritrean capital, Asmara.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of