Ethiopian PM holds Bilateral Talks with Prez Akufo-Addo

The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed Ali, arrived in the country yesterday for a three-day working visit, and held bilateral talks with the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

He was met on arrival at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) by Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, and later paid a courtesy call on president Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House, the seat of government.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, president Akufo-Addo reiterated his commitment to deepen bilateral relations with the East African country of Ethiopia.

“He has come to talk to us about the progress of bilateral relations between Ethiopia and Ghana and then of course, necessarily, regional and continental issues will also be part of our meeting,” he told members of the presidential press corps before going into a closed doors meeting.

Relations between Ghana and Ethiopia have existed since the time of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah and Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.

There is a lot of potential for the two countries to expand cooperation.

Ghana’s diplomatic mission in Addis Ababa, led by Amma Twum-Amoah, has been working towards this vision.

Prime Minister, Ali’s visit to Ghana, however, comes on the back of ongoing fighting in northern Ethiopia, between the Ethiopian Armed Forces and rebels in the Tigray region where thousands were reported to have been killed over the weekend alone in clashes as fighting continues.

The conflict has been raging for 10 months, pushing hundreds of thousands of people into conditions of famine.

The rebel forces said on Sunday that they had killed 3,073 “enemy forces”, with 4,473 injured.

It comes after the military said it had killed more than 5,600 rebels, without specifying a timeframe.

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