Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent.
Four months after Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced he would resign, and two months after Abiy Ahmed was sworn in as his replacement, the pace of change in Ethiopia seems only to quicken. This week saw a dramatic shift in the government’s stance toward Eritrea, its neighbor and longtime foe, as well as significant political, economic and security reforms at home.
On Tuesday, the government announced that it was finally ready to implement the terms of a peace deal with Eritrea that ended a border war that killed tens of thousands of people between 1998 and 2000. Until now, Ethiopia has rejected the findings of a commission tasked with demarcating the border, with the town of Badme being a major point of contention.