French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna announced Thursday that she would travel to Ethiopia next week with her German counterpart Annalena Baerbock "to consolidate peace", after the agreement signed on November 2 between the government and Tigrayan rebels.
"I will be traveling next week with my colleague and friend Annalena Baerbock to Africa, to Ethiopia," Colonna told LCI television.
"We will travel together to consolidate the peace agreement that has finally been reached" to end the war that ravaged northern Ethiopia for two years "and to support the action of the African Union,” she added.
The peace agreement provides in particular for the disarmament of rebel forces, the restoration of federal authority in Tigray and the reopening of access and communications to this isolated region since mid-2021.
A diplomatic source told AFP that the visit of the two heads of diplomacy would take place on January 12 and 13. They will also discuss food security as well as relations between Ethiopia and the European Union, as well as relations between the EU and the African Union, according to the same source.
Ms Colonna saw in this joint visit the sign of a strong and peaceful Franco-German relationship at the approach of the anniversary, on January 22, of the 1963 Élysée Treaty which sealed reconciliation and opened an era unprecedented cooperation between the two countries.
"Everything is fine," she said, adding that Ms. Baerbock and herself would be "together also after January 22 at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels".
