![Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at the Ethiopian Parliament during a questions session in Addis Ababa on February 1, 2019 [File: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/1d53c3ef9c8a4c68ae2db43e99045514_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
And is the current federal system encouraging ethnic violence?
![Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika with Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki after the signing of a peace agreement on December 12, 2000, in Algiers [AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/f94756c521a64bc7a3ed92046b57c115_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Ethiopia and Eritrea should not repeat the mistakes of the 1990s, when a period of rapprochement ended in war.
![Ethnic politics is not a necessary evil that Ethiopia has to live with - it is rather an existential threat, write Gebreluel, Bedasso and Mamo [Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/83643e2f0ed94f5f821ae17a417d86df_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Democratisation, while imperative, will not solve Ethiopia’s problems. De-ethnicisation of elite politics would.
![Ethiopia and Egypt finally ended their millennia-long rivalry over the river Nile [EPA]](/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2014122211815738580_20.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
The Egypt-Ethiopia dispute over the Nile basin can evolve into a strategic partnership.
![Eritrean refugees meeting certain criteria are allowed to study and work in Ethiopia [Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/2013121111343273734_20.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
New internal and external dynamics are shaping the relations between the two countries.
![Isaias Afewerki has been president of Eritrea since its independence in 1993 [Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/201310612239964734_20.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Eritrea’s refugee crisis threatens to undermine the stability of the secretive country.