Nairobi, June 12 (AFP/APP): Eritrea has rejoined the East African bloc, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), nearly 16 years after the politically isolated state pulled out of the body, Information Minister Yemane Meskel said Monday.
“Eritrea resumed its activity in IGAD and took its seat” at a summit organised by the seven-nation bloc in Djibouti on Monday, Meskel said on Twitter.
He said the country was ready to work towards “peace, stability and regional integration.”
The authoritarian state suspended its membership of IGAD in 2007 following a string of disagreements, including over the bloc’s decision to ask Kenya to oversee the resolution of a border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia in 1993 and fought a two-year border war with its neighbour which poisoned relations until a peace agreement in 2018.
Following the rapprochement with Addis Ababa, Eritrean troops supported Ethiopian forces during the federal government’s war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and have been accused by the United States and rights groups of some of the conflict’s worst atrocities.
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