Eritrean President Issayas Afewerki ended a high-profile three-day official visit to Ethiopia on Wednesday, October 15, accompanied by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
This visit, the second this year, was an opportunity for the two men to confirm their friendship. And suddenly to send a signal to the authorities of the Ethiopian province of Tigray in a state of de facto rebellion against the federal authorities.
Every meeting between the leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea is an opportunity to take beautiful pictures. This time since Monday, Abiy Ahmed and Issayas Afewerki have shown a visit to a university and a coffee plantation in Oromiya, then a hydropower plant, Entoto Natural Park and above all on Tuesday the famous Renaissance dam, the flagship of Ethiopia’s geopolitics.
But behind these images, each meeting also carries a political message. This time it is in the midst of a crisis between the authorities Ethiopian and Tigray Province, the border with Eritrea.
Their blatant involvement, a former Eritrean diplomat emphasizes, reminds the Tigers that the two heads of state have erased all their differences. “All the more so,” he adds, “since the contempt that Issayas Afewerki showed courage renaissance dam when the Tigrayans were in power is gone now that they have been thrown out. ”
The fact is that there are many other topics of discussion between the two men: the Tigray issue, of course, but also the full application of their reconciliation agreement, the management of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the devastating grasshopper invasions. pilgrims recently resumed in both countries.
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