Zawadi Mudibo
BBC Africa
Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh says his country is ready for reconciliation and normalisation of ties with Eritrea after meeting the foreign ministers of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.
Eritrea and Djibouti have had a decade long border conflict over Ras Doumeira island, which Djibouti claims is being illegally occupied by Eritrea.
In July, Djibouti petitioned the United Nation’s security council, asking the body to “facilitate an agreement between them upon a mutually acceptable means of peaceful dispute settlement”.
The resolution of the Ras Doumeira conflict could secure the lifting of UN sanctions on Eritrea for the first time since 2009.
Qatar had presided over mediation efforts maintaining a military buffer presence for much of the past decade, but withdrew its peacekeeping contingent from Ras Doumeira at the height of the Gulf Cooperation Council crisis.
