A surprise deal has been reached to stop Ethiopia’s civil war in Tigray. The parties in the conflict have agreed on a “permanent cessation of hostilities”. Up to half a million people have died during two years of conflict. Hundreds of thousands have escaped, and nine million urgently need food.
ADDIS ABABA NOVEMBER 3: A surprise deal has been reached to stop Ethiopia’s civil war in Tigray after talks in South Africa. The Ethiopian government and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front have agreed to a ‘permanent cessation of hostilities’.
The parties in the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray have agreed on a “permanent cessation of hostilities”, the African Union mediator said, just over a week after formal peace talks began in South Africa.
Former Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo, in the first briefing on the peace talks, also said Ethiopia’s government and Tigray authorities have agreed on “orderly, smooth and coordinated disarmament” along with “restoration of law and order,” “restoration of services” and “unhindered access to humanitarian supplies.”
The war, which broke out in November 2020, pits regional forces from Tigray against Ethiopia’s federal army and its allies, who include forces from other regions and from neighbouring Eritrea.
The Eritrean and Amhara forces, who also fought alongside the Ethiopian, were not part of the South African-hosted peace talks. Eritrean fighters have been blamed for some of the conflict’s worst abuses, including gang-rapes. Witnesses have described indiscriminate killings as well as lootings by Eritrean forces.
Some of these atrocities are alleged to have taken place even as the peace talks were taking place.
Up to half a million people have died during two years of conflict. Hundreds of thousands have escaped, and nine million urgently need food.
