{"id":414989,"date":"2018-04-02T10:25:29","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T10:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=414989"},"modified":"2018-04-02T10:25:29","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T10:25:29","slug":"new-ethiopia-pm-seeks-eritrea-dialogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=414989","title":{"rendered":"New Ethiopia PM seeks Eritrea dialogue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Ethiopia&#8217;s new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has pledged his readiness to resolve disputes with neighbour Eritrea.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on state television after his swearing-in ceremony, Mr Ahmed called for an end to &#8220;years of misunderstandings&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I call on the Eritrean government to take the same stand,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The two countries have had poor relations since a two-year border war, which claimed 70,000 lives.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ahmed was chosen to lead the ruling coalition after the unexpected resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in February.<\/p>\n<p>He is Ethiopia&#8217;s first Oromo leader &#8211; an ethnic group which has led anti-government protests for three decades.<\/p>\n<p>State television channel ETV broadcast his speech live after he was sworn in.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ahmed said the country was ready to resolve differences between the two peoples, who are &#8220;not only intertwined in interests but also in blood&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will stand by our African brothers in general and our neighbours in particular, during good and bad at times,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Desalegn, while in power, had accused Eritrea of backing anti-government protests in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Eritrea has made no comment since Mr Ahmed was nominated to replace Mr Desalegn.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/241E\/production\/_100064290_hi044787352.jpg\" alt=\"Supporters of Bekele Gerba, secretary general of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), chant slogans to celebrate his release from prison, in Adama, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, 14 February 2018\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/>Ethiopia has been hit by three years of protests against land grabs, human rights abuses and tightly controlled politics<\/span><\/figure>\n<p>The two countries fought a bloody two-year struggle between 1998 and 2000. Eritrea had previously fought a 30-year independence campaign against Ethiopia after its annexation in 1962.<\/p>\n<p>Ethiopia still occupies land at the heart of the conflict, around the town of Badme.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ethiopia&#8217;s new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has pledged his readiness to resolve disputes with neighbour Eritrea. Speaking on state television after his swearing-in ceremony, Mr Ahmed called for an end to &#8220;years of misunderstandings&#8221;. &#8220;I call on the Eritrean government to take the same stand,&#8221; he said. The two countries have had poor relations since [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":414990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-414989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=414989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/414990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=414989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=414989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=414989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}