March 28, 2018 (KHARTOUM) - The founding meeting of the Economic Community of the Horn of Africa (ECHA) will be held in Khartoum on 12 April, said Sudan’s State Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdallah Idriss On Wednesday, state minister at the presidency and director of the president’s offices Hatim Hassan Bakhit presided over the meeting of the ECHA’s coordination committee. Following the meeting, Idriss told reporters that the ECHA presidential summit would be preceded by the meeting of the experts from 9 to 10 April and foreign ministers meeting on 11 April. He pointed out that the ECHA which includes Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti aims to achieve political coordination and economic integration in areas of investment, trade and exchange of information and expertise. The Sudanese minister added the draft statute for the ECHA had been developed, saying President Omer al-Bashir has extended the invitations for his counterparts to attend the meeting. __________________________________________________ Unless Eritrea withdraws or not participate, this commission will be permanently in Sudan. Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia cannot host each other. As it stands these countries only communicate through Sudan anyway. I think Djibouti will try to lock port business. Djibouti will fight tooth and nail that Sudan does not expand the highway from Port Sudan to Ethiopia and also not provide Ethiopia with cheap less than cost port services and dry port.