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Eritrea Sends High-Level Delegation to Ethiopia

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Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed welcomes Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh and his delegation at the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, June 26, 2018.
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed welcomes Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh and his delegation at the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, June 26, 2018.

A high-level delegation from Eritrea is in neighboring Ethiopia for historic talks that could bring an end to one of Africa's longest-running conflicts.

The Eritrean delegation arrived in Addis Ababa Tuesday.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki pledged to send the delegation last week during his country's Martyrs Day observance in the capital, Asmara. President Afwerki's pledge was in response to one made earlier this month by Ethiopia's new reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that he will honor a deal signed in 2000 to end a two-year border war.

FILE - President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea addresses the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Sept. 23, 2011.
FILE - President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea addresses the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Sept. 23, 2011.

Ethiopia had long refused to accept the terms of the deal, which included withdrawing from the border town of Badme.

Eritrea, a former province of Ethiopia, broke away in 1993.

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