The mending of relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea encapsulated in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia and President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea is a great boon for peace and security in the two countries. The blocs have experienced two decades of armed hostilities.

The same gesture should be embraced in the lake Chad basin which is weighed down by terror and extremist groups; South Sudan with its countless failed negotiations; Cameroon with its spill-over conflicts from neighbouring countries; the Democratic Republic of Congo with state highhandedness, and Burundi with the conflict that has seen mass killings of nearly 300000 people since the early 1990’s.

The end of conflict in these regions will elicit regional stability in the Horn of Africa as well as bolster Africa’s efforts to “Silence the Guns by 2020.”