Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia seek to develop Horn of Africa

CAIRO, Dec 7 (AFP) — Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia agreed here Sunday to work together to help settle problems in the Horn of Africa region and promote economic development there.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told reporters after talks with his counterparts Mustafa Osman Ismail of Sudan and Seyoum Mesfin of Ethiopia that they had discussed ways to “work together to settle the problems in the Horn of Africa (…) to achieve development of all the countries in the region.”

They would cooperate in the areas of trade, economics, culture, and collective security, Maher said.

He added that experts from the three countries would meet in Cairo to draft an “action plan to reinforce cooperation among the three countries.”

Maher said the tripartite meeting would be held every six months in one of their capitals, adding he had accepted an invitation to attend the next one in Addis Abeba.

Ismail and Mesfin met here Sunday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.