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The Cold War between Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea seemed once insoluble. A difficult stalemate has persisted since 2000, when a UN-brokered peace deal ended two years of trench warfare that left nearly 80,000 dead and displaced more than half a year. -million people. The agreement was quickly ignored by Ethiopia, which refused to surrender the border town of Badme and other disputed territories. In the following years, both sides mbaded thousands of soldiers at the border, while arming each other's rebel groups. Sometimes, tensions overflow. Eritrea's alleged support for Islamist rebels in neighboring Somalia led to a UN arms embargo in 2009, motivated largely by Ethiopia's desire to push its northern rival, who had seceded in 1993, in diplomatic isolation. It was one of the most intractable conflicts in Africa. So why, on July 8, did the two parties make peace?
The appointment in April of a new Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, 41 years old (pictured above, right), was vital. In taking office, he called for peace, as did his two predecessors. But in early June, he went further, proposing to implement the UN peace agreement, including his controversial decision on the location of the border, without preconditions. The political and generational change in the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) announced by its ascent made possible a new reflection. Mr. Abiyi's Oromo faction in the ethnic coalition does not have the luggage of the Tiger Wing (the TPLF), which has dominated the Ethiopian government for a quarter century and has close ties (and bitter ) with the ruling party in Eritrea. like the People's Liberation Front of Eritrea (EPLF). Both groups spent much of the 1970s and 1980s fighting each other against the Marxist dictatorship of the time, but the relations were rarely friendly. "The war between Eritrea and Ethiopia from 1998-2000 was in fact a conflict between the EPLF and the TPLF about ideology and hegemony", explains Kjetil Tronvoll of Bjorknes University College. As Mr. Abiy has put away the TPLF, increased the chances of peace with Isaias Afwerki (pictured above, left), the first president of Eritrea and to this day, [19659003] Get our daily newsletter
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