Ethiopia and Eritrea Reach a Peace Deal

Eritrea and Ethiopia have reached a deal to end a two-year border war that has cost tens of thousands of lives, officials from both sides said Monday.

The countries will sign a treaty Dec. 12 in Algiers, said Yemane Gebremeskel, a spokesman for Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki.

Afwerki received a formal invitation over the weekend from Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to attend the signing ceremony, Gebremeskel said by telephone from the Eritrean capital, Asmara.

In the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, spokeswoman Selome Taddesse said the government had accepted Bouteflika’s invitation to send a delegation to Algiers. She said a draft agreement proposed by the Organization of African Unity will first be presented to the Ethiopian Parliament on Thursday for discussion.

Ethiopian and Eritrean military officers met over the weekend in Nairobi with officials of the 4,500-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission deployed along the border between the two countries in the Horn of Africa.

The war over the 620-mile border broke out in May 1998 when Eritrea, which had gained independence from Ethiopia five years earlier after three decades of guerrilla warfare, moved into what Ethiopians considered their territory.

The two countries signed a truce in June in Algiers.