Abiy visits Kenya amidst Tigray crisis
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed will on Wednesday start a two-day visit to neighbouring Kenya, his first foreign trip since he announced the completion of a military operation in the northern Tigray region.
He will be received by his host President Uhuru Kenyatta in Moyale, a border town in north-eastern Kenya.
The two leaders are due to inaugurate and inspect infrastructure projects.
These include the Moyale border post and the new Lamu port, which is one of the infrastructure projects intended to link Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan.
The two countries enjoy warm relations and their leaders have met several times before, but this meeting happens at a significant time.
An internal conflict between Ethiopia’s federal government and the renegade administration of Tigray state has dominated news headlines across the world since early November.
Hundreds have been killed and thousands displaced in the fighting.
Meanwhile, clashes between communities residing at the common border with Kenya are not unusual.
A few weeks ago, at least 10 Kenyans were arrested and taken into Ethiopia as the soldiers’ battled OLF Shane group in western Ethiopia.
The perennial conflicts in the area will be among issues the two leaders will discuss in their meetings on Wednesday and Thursday.
