Eritrean National Airline Makes First Flight in Decades to Ethiopia

Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki (R) and Ethiopia's PM Abiy Ahmed (L) raise Eritrea's flag marking the reopening of the Eritrean embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 16, 2018. (Reuters)
Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki (R) and Ethiopia's PM Abiy Ahmed (L) raise Eritrea's flag marking the reopening of the Eritrean embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 16, 2018. (Reuters)
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Eritrean National Airline Makes First Flight in Decades to Ethiopia

Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki (R) and Ethiopia's PM Abiy Ahmed (L) raise Eritrea's flag marking the reopening of the Eritrean embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 16, 2018. (Reuters)
Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki (R) and Ethiopia's PM Abiy Ahmed (L) raise Eritrea's flag marking the reopening of the Eritrean embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 16, 2018. (Reuters)

For the first time in 20 years, Eritrea’s national airline made its first commercial flight to Ethiopia on Saturday as the two neighbors continued their peace process, ending years of conflict.

An Eritrean Airlines plane carrying the country's transport and tourism ministers landed at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, where it was welcomed by senior Ethiopian officials.

Already last month, the Ethiopia's own flag carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, had made its first commercial flight in the other direction, landing in Asmara International Airport on July 18.

Once a province of Ethiopia, Eritrea seceded in 1993 after a long independence struggle. A row over the demarcation of the shared border triggered a brutal 1998-2000 conflict which left 80,000 people dead before evolving into a bitter cold war.

But in a surprise move in June, Ethiopia's new reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced he would finally accept a 2002 United Nations-backed border demarcation, paving the way for peace between the two nations.

He then paid a historic visit to Eritrea, during which he and President Isaias Afwerki declared an official end to the war. Afwerki reciprocated with a state visit to Ethiopia just days later.

Embassies have since been reopened and phone lines between the two countries have also been restored.

Eritrean Airlines currently has only one leased airplane.

"The new route will expand existing regional flights of the airline to Cairo, Khartoum, Jeddah and Dubai," Eritrea's information minister Yemane Gebre Meskel said on Twitter.

Last month, Ethiopian Airlines chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam revealed his state-owned company was in talks to buy a stake in Eritrean Airlines as part of efforts to boost commercial ties between the two countries, who were once each others' biggest trading partners.

Ethiopia's flag carrier is the most profitable in Africa and in recent years has been has been buying shares in other African airlines.



UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
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UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)

More than 14 million children did not receive a single vaccine last year — about the same number as the year before — according to UN health officials. Nine countries accounted for more than half of those unprotected children.

In their annual estimate of global vaccine coverage, released Tuesday, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said about 89% of children under one year old got a first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine in 2024, the same as in 2023. About 85% completed the three-dose series, up from 84% in 2023.

Officials acknowledged, however, that the collapse of international aid this year will make it more difficult to reduce the number of unprotected children.

In January, US President Trump withdrew the country from the WHO, froze nearly all humanitarian aid and later moved to close the US AID Agency. And last month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said it was pulling the billions of dollars the US had previously pledged to the vaccines alliance Gavi, saying the group had “ignored the science.”

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has previously raised questions the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine, which has proven to be safe and effective after years of study and real-world use. Vaccines prevent 3.5 million to 5 million deaths a year, according to UN estimates.

“Drastic cuts in aid, coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines, threaten to unwind decades of progress,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

UN experts said that access to vaccines remained “deeply unequal” and that conflict and humanitarian crises quickly unraveled progress; Sudan had the lowest reported coverage against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

The data showed that nine countries accounted for 52% of all children who missed out on immunizations entirely: Nigeria, India, Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Angola.

WHO and UNICEF said that coverage against measles rose slightly, with 76% of children worldwide receiving both vaccine doses. But experts say measles vaccine rates need to reach 95% to prevent outbreaks of the extremely contagious disease. WHO noted that 60 countries reported big measles outbreaks last year.

The US is now having its worst measles outbreak in more than three decades, while the disease has also surged across Europe, with 125,000 cases in 2024 — twice as many as the previous year, according to WHO.

Last week, British authorities reported a child died of measles in a Liverpool hospital. Health officials said that despite years of efforts to raise awareness, only about 84% of children in the UK are protected.

“It is hugely concerning, but not at all surprising, that we are continuing to see outbreaks of measles,” said Helen Bradford, a professor of children’s health at University College London.

“The only way to stop measles spreading is with vaccination,” she said in a statement. “It is never too late to be vaccinated — even as an adult.”