Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh, who is visiting Ethiopia, witnessed On Friday the signing of extradition agreement between the two countries along with Prime Minister of Ethiopia Hailemariam Desalegn.
The agreement signed this morning will allow one country to handover a person the other country considered as criminal or terrorist.
Commenting on the issue a lawyer said the agreement will make impossible the movement of exiled opposition fighters of Ethiopia, which are named as terrorist organizations by Ethiopian Parliament or any one the country calls criminal. “Like wise it unthinkable for the exiled Djibouti opposition leaders considered as criminal by the country to consider Ethiopia as safe heaven,” the lawyers said requesting not to be quoted by name.
This morning the two leaders have also witnessed signing of agreements on mutual legal assistance on criminal matters, according to the joint statement distributed to the journalists who attended the signing ceremony.
In addition a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the fields of justice and legal training while agreeing to speed up the operationalization of the recently completed Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway, which is part of the continental Djibouti-Dakar railway project.
“The visit of Djibouti’s President to Ethiopia is a landmark that that has brought our relationship to the next level,” Prime Minister Hailemariam said at a follow-up press conference. “The two country’s integration is exemplary to other African countries,” he said indicating that Ethiopia and Djibouti are connected by railroad, road, fiber-optics, electricity, among others.
“We are highly interconnected. We either live or die together, he said, indicating that Ethiopia relies on the port of Djibouti while Djibouti depends mainly on the income that comes from this port service with water and electric power from Ethiopia.
President Ismail on his part stated that the main objective of the agreement is to strengthen relation of the two countries in trade, investment and industrialization of the two countries.
Among the issues the two countries leaders’ have talked about includes the issue of Somalia and South Sudan, according to the joint statement. On Somalia the two leaders underlined the need to garner further the support for the Government of Somalia to successfully install the necessary political, security and administrative institutions.
Djibouti’s president who made speech at the Ethiopian Parliament yesterday afternoon is having a three days official visit in Ethiopia along with his government officials.