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NAIROBI (Reuters) – Ethiopia is set to play Eritrea in a friendly soccer match, the state-affiliated Fana news agency reported on Monday, after a dramatic end to a 20-year old war between two African states.
Algeria's Yacine Brahimi (C) fights for the ball with Ethiopia's Natanael Zeleke (L) and Andaregachew Yelake during their African Nations Cup qualifying match at Tchaker Stadium in Blida, file. REUTERS / Louafi Larbi
The game would be played in late August in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, the agency said on its twitter feed.
The match is part of the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to sweep a generation of hostility between the nations since signing a peace deal last month.
Triggered by a border dispute in 1998, the conflict killed more than 80,000 people. At least 350,000 people living along the border have been uprooted and forced to flee.
Leaders have visited each other, and last week Eritrea reopened its country's embbady in Addis Ababa. {L8N1UC1BX]
Ethiopia's National Carrier Ethiopia Airlines last week made its first flight to Asmara in two decades and was greeted by dancers waving flags and flowers and the ensuing hostilities made an emotional reunion.
Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Ken Ferris
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