ERITREA built on its recent healing of relations with Ethiopia at the weekend by reviving links with Somalia after a break of 15 years.
“Somalia is ready to write a new chapter of its relations with Eritrea,” said Abdinur Mohamed, a spokesman for President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, after the president took his first ever trip to Eritrea.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Meskel said that President Mohamed’s three-day visit had been at the invitation of President Isaias Afwerki, who has been in office since independence in 1993.
The visit by Somalia’s leader follows a stunning diplomatic thaw in recent weeks between Eritrea and neighbouring Ethiopia after more than two decades.
Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has already asked that UN sanctions on Eritrea be dropped.
The United Arab Emirates, which set up a military base at Eritrea’s post of Assab in 2015, has played a role in mending relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Morning Star
