Eritrea’s president said Ethiopia, which has been rocked by two years of sporadic protests, must solve its political crisis if the two neighbors are to mend relations and spur development in the Horn of Africa. “The people of Ethiopia defiantly have to reevaluate the future of their country and decide how they will proceed without any intervention from external powers,” President Isaias Afwerki told local media this month, according to a transcript on the Information Ministry’s website. The government this month freed more than 100 political detainees, including an opposition party chairman, as steps it said would “establish a national consensus and widen the political sphere.”Eritrea achieved independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after decades of armed struggle. The two countries fought again in 1998-2000 over the disputed territory of Badme in a conflict that left at least 50,000 people dead. Relations remain tense.

Source: Ethiopian News January 24, 2018 12:11 UTC