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In another statement of decisive agreement to end one of Africa 's most enduring conflicts, an Ethiopian Airlines plane flew Wednesday to the United States. Eritrea neighbor across a border that had been a front line in two decades of deep and mutual hostility.
Flight 312 left Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, at 9 am local time, for Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, nine days after the official end of the state of war on their common border. The war raged from 1998 to 2000 and left 80,000 dead, but a peace agreement has never been fully implemented.
The new agreement, announced on July 9, has been presented by badysts as the precursor of an unknown stability. in the Horn of Africa, a region known for seemingly intractable conflicts that date back to the Cold War.
Eritrea, for example, fought Ethiopian domination and annexation for several decades to gain independence in 1993. Five years later, the war between Ethiopia and the United States was over. Eritrea, a former Italian colony, broke out on the delimitation of their common border.
"The state of war between Ethiopia and Eritrea has ended," said the two leaders. "A new era of peace and friendship has been opened."
The maiden flight was carrying pbadengers, including former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia and other government officials, as well as Ethiopian artists, journalists and potential investors. Tewolde GebreMariam, the managing director of Ethiopian Airlines, has described the theft, which followed the reconnection of phone lines last week, of a "single event".
This was the demand for seats that the airline made a second flight. minutes after the first. The flight attendants served champagne and distributed roses, according to a Agence France-Presse reporter on the second flight.
"With the application we are witnessing, I think we will increase the frequency to twice a day." Mr. Tewolde, general manager of Ethiopian Airline, was quoted by AFP
] The agreement could allow Ethiopia's landlocked, Africa's second most populous nation, after Nigeria, to access Eritrean port facilities on the Red Sea Road.
L & D Abandonment of hostility is the last sign of the pell-mell reform since Mr. Abiy, a 41-year-old former army officer who is among the youngest leaders of Africa, came to power in April .The Ethiopian Minister of Information, Ahmed Shide, announced his intention to sell some state-owned enterprises, stating in an interview with Reuters that the authorities wanted to "unleash the potential" He stated that the government would retain majority stakes in s airlines, logistics, energy and telecommunications of the state. Although the fate of the financial services sector has remained uncertain, other companies such as hotels, sugar and cement could be put on sale, according to Reuters.
The peace agreement with Ethiopia has also encouraged some Eritreans to ask if the opening will encourage greater freedoms in their own country, which is known as one of the societies the most repressive and secretive in the world.
According to United Nations figures, hundreds of thousands of young Eritreans have fled the Sahara and the Mediterranean. in Europe in recent years to escape the compulsory and indefinite conscription once justified by the state of war with Ethiopia. The autocratic Mr. Isais has been in power since his independence in 1993.
"They are right," she wrote, "the recent opening of Ethiopian peace could actually make the region more unstable."
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