Status: 10/17/2022 00:09 a.m
There is a threat of famine in the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, but the ongoing fighting means that no aid is being delivered. The head of the African Union and UN Secretary-General Guterres call for a ceasefire.
Because of the ongoing fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, has called on the Ethiopian government and the troops in Tigray to agree on an unconditional ceasefire. It is important that the local people are cared for again.
The troops in Tigray welcomed the call. “We stand ready to adhere to an immediate cessation of hostilities,” they said in a statement. The Ethiopian government did not react for the time being.
Guterres deeply concerned
The war is about who is in charge of Tigray: the central government in Addis Ababa or the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which is rooted in the region. In the dispute over regional elections and more political independence, the national Ethiopian armed forces and their allied troops from neighboring Eritrea occupied the region from November 2020, but were then pushed back.
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Saturday evening that he was deeply concerned about the escalation of the fighting. Guterres demanded that hostilities cease immediately.
Samantha Power, the head of the US Agency for International Development, called on Eritrean troops to withdraw from Tigray. She also urged those involved to agree on a ceasefire. Up to a million people in the region are on the brink of starvation, Power wrote on Twitter.
Even more bitter than in the first phase
The fighting continues, although the warring parties have agreed to negotiate. Originally, there were supposed to be peace talks led by the African Union at the beginning of the month. However, these were postponed for logistical reasons.
A ceasefire had already been agreed in March to enable urgently needed aid deliveries for the people of Tigray. In August, however, fighting flared up again. Since then the war has been raging again – apparently even more bitter than in the first phase. The number of soldiers killed since the beginning of the war is increasing rapidly.