Ethiopia: Tigray ceasefire agreed

Status: 11/02/2022 6:08 p.m

Ethiopia’s government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front have agreed on an immediate ceasefire. Access to relief supplies should also be guaranteed. It is unclear how Eritrea will behave.

According to the African Union (AU), the parties to the conflict in Ethiopia have agreed to end the violence. AU special envoy and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said the Ethiopian government and representatives of the embattled Tigray region had agreed on an orderly and coordinated disarmament and the restoration of law and order. In addition, unhindered access to relief supplies should be established.

Ethiopian government representative Redwan Hussien, national security adviser to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, said all parties should abide by the letter and spirit of the agreement, according to Reuters.

In response, Tigray delegate Getachew Reda, a spokesman for the regional authorities, spoke about the death and destruction in the region and said it was his hope and expectation that both parties would honor their commitments.

Reaction of Eritrea unclear

The peace talks mediated by the AU began last week and took place in South Africa. They were supposed to end on Sunday, but were then extended. According to US estimates, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, which has been going on for two years.

Eritrea, whose troops are fighting alongside the Ethiopian military in Tigray, did not take part in the talks. It is unclear whether the country bordering Tigray will accept a negotiated solution.

The background to the conflict is a dispute over power in Tigray and the influence of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which has ruled there for a long time. The TPLF also held a leading position in politics and the military nationwide for a long time, but its influence was pushed back after Prime Minister Abiy took office in 2018.

Military conflict since 2020

When Abiy postponed regional elections in Tigray indefinitely in September 2020 due to the corona pandemic, the TPLF organized a vote anyway. The in turn declared Abiy invalid. After that, tensions between the TPLF and the central government continued to rise, escalating into a military conflict after a clash in early November 2020.

In the meantime, a ceasefire declared at the end of March cleared the way for urgently needed humanitarian aid deliveries to the embattled regions. But fighting broke out again in August.

Most recently, the Ethiopian army reported successes. In mid-October, for example, soldiers took the strategically important town of Shire in the north of the region. Basically, there are few independent reports from Tigray because the internet and telephone network are repeatedly interrupted.

Millions of people are starving

After two years of grueling fighting, the humanitarian situation is catastrophic. Millions of people are starving and need help. Again and again, aid organizations have difficulties getting supplies and their staff to the affected regions because they are blocked. All parties to the conflict are also accused of serious human rights crimes.

According to a UN report released in September, there is ample reason to believe that extrajudicial killings, rape, sexual violence and starvation have been used as weapons of war.

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