UK Reaffirms Support To Ethiopia’s Reform Initiative

 The United Kingdom (UK) has expressed its readiness to support Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s broad reforms, especially on the economic and facilitating economic cooperation between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

In an exclusive interview with ENA, UK Ambassador to Ethiopia, Susanna Moorehead said Ethiopia is UK’s largest bilateral development project recipient in Africa.

Lauding the recent peace accord reached to normalize relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea, she stressed “we now really need to work hard to invest in and build the peace.”

For this to happen, Moorehead said wide range of cooperation is crucial and added,

“One of the ways we are doing that is to get much more economic cooperation going between Ethiopia and Eritrea. And we stand ready to help the Prime Minister does that.”

The ambassador commended the comprehensive reforms undertaken by Premier Abiy and reaffirmed its government’s support.

“He is already doing a huge amount of support for Prime Minister Abiy’s reforms on the economic side, education and range of other human development programs and we stand ready to help him in his reform agenda,” the ambassador noted.

Furthermore, she said Ethiopia, the largest peacekeepers contributor in the world, is playing significant role in improving the quality of peacekeeping.

Ambassador Moorehead said “Ethiopia is improving peacekeepers capability to keep the peace and above all to protect civilians.”

“We are extraordinarily grateful for what Ethiopia does in improving not just the quantity of peacekeeping but the quality. So one of the things that we work very closely on peacekeeper zone is to ensure there is no sexuall

y based violence … for peacekeepers really do what they are supposed to do,” she pointed out.

On the top of capacitating the Ethiopian Peace and Security Training Center, UK is providing support that aims at brining better peacekeeping and peacemaking in the Horn of Africa, she explained.

SOURCE:FANABC