Direct telephone connection restored between long-time foes Ethiopia and Eritrea

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Direct international telephone connection was restored on Sunday between Ethiopia and Eritrea "for the first time after two decades", an Ethiopian official said on Sunday. The Ethiopian Prime Minister's chief of staff wrote the statement on Twitter after a summit between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrea's President Isaias Afkwerki began. The meeting was the first of its kind between the leaders of the two neighbors and bitter rivals in the Horn of Africa, who went to war with each other and broke off diplomatic relations in 1998. [L8N1U405A] (Reporting By Maggie Fick; Editing by Keith Weir)