Is there hope of restoration between Ethiopia and Eritrea?
Ethiopia and Eritrea have found peace after 20 years, making prospects for the introduction of sweeping democratic reforms in both countries more promising
Jubilant shouts erupted on July 18 aboard the first commercial flight in two decades from Ethiopia to Eritrea. Ethiopia, under Africa’s youngest leader, Abiy Ahmed, 41, signed a peace accord with its neighbour and introduced reforms that suspected hardliners tried to derail with an attempt on his life. Ahmed has lifted the state of emergency in the country. He has begun the mass release of political prisoners, a purge of reactionary military brass, the lifting of press restrictions and the partial privatisation of state-owned enterprises, including Africa’s leading airline. What prospects Ethiopia’s avalanche of reforms and the end of its cold war with Eritrea hold for the democratisation of isolationist Eritrea, which is nicknamed "Africa’s North Korea", remains to be seen. Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki once led the Eritrean resistance in a military alliance that included the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, which fought a guerrilla war that in 1991 toppled the Soviet-backed...
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