German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday urged Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to ensure lasting peace in the country after the Tigray conflict, which has caused many victims, violence and population displacements.

Scholz said in a statement that Ethiopia “has made a lot of progress in ending the civil war in Tigray.”

“I encouraged Prime Minister Abiy and the regional government to continue working for lasting peace and to fight against war crimes,” he said.

Ahmed met Scholz in the capital Addis Ababa to discuss peace issues and bilateral and multilateral issues of mutual importance.

Scholz is on a visit to East Africa which began in Ethiopia on May 4.

This is his second trip to Africa since taking office, and the purpose of the visit is to focus on peacekeeping, green energy and the aftermath of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

During their meeting, Ahmed and Scholz also pledged to strengthen the long-standing ties between Ethiopia and Germany.

“We discussed an enhanced partnership between Ethiopia and Germany in addition to regional and multilateral issues,” Ahmed said in a statement.

The two leaders also discussed the war in Ukraine and other regional security issues, including the situation in neighboring countries like Somalia and Sudan.

During his visit to Ethiopia, Scholz also met with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, and expressed his support for the African Union’s efforts to secure a seat at the G20 summit.

Scholz assured Mahamat that he has Germany’s full support in advocating for the inclusion of the African Union in the annual gathering of the world’s most powerful economies.

Scholz is due to travel to Kenya on Friday in a next leg of his African tour.

Kenya is Germany’s largest trading partner in East Africa, with two-way trade reaching a value of more than 400 million euros ($441 million) in 2020.