Sudan and Eritrea hailed on Friday a major improvement in bilateral relations strained by a decade of mutual accusations of support for each other’s opposition groups. ”The two sides have reached a breakthrough after four days of strenuous talks, ending more than 10 years of estrangement that were not in the interest of the two neighbours and their brotherly peoples,” said Sudanese foreign ministry spokesperson Jamal Mohammed Ibrahim.

Sudan’s first post-war national unity government was sworn in on Thursday at a ceremony attended by President Omar al-Beshir, eight months after a peace deal that ended Africa’s longest-running conflict. But the new Cabinet was swiftly dismissed by the opposition as falling well short of a truly broad-based government.