ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Rebel forces in Ethiopia’s Tigray have said they will abide by a ceasefire proposed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government, provided sufficient humanitarian aid is provided to their region. ravaged by war in the north of the country “within a reasonable time”.
The government in Addis Ababa declared a cessation of hostilities on Thursday to allow the delivery of aid to Tigray.
However, the government did not immediately specify how the ceasefire would be enforced on the battlefield, where a mix of regional fighters and volunteer militias are battling Tigray forces.
“The Tigray government will do everything it can to ensure that this cessation of hostilities is a success,” the Tigray regional government said in a statement late Thursday.
War broke out between Tigray’s rulers – the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – and the central government led by Abiy Ahmed, in November 2020.
The conflict, which then spread to neighboring Amhara and Afar regions, killed thousands of civilians and displaced millions in northern Ethiopia and Sudan.
According to the United Nations (UN), more than 90% of the 5.5 million inhabitants of Tigray need food aid.
Food distribution in the mountainous region hit a new low this month as food stocks ran out, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement. its latest weekly bulletin.
Only about 68,000 people received food aid from March 10 to 16, according to Ocha.
The Tigray and Amhara regions were relatively calm during the week of March 15, but armed clashes were reported in parts of the Afar region, Ocha said, without specifying who was involved in the attack. these fights.
The UN and the United States welcomed the Addis Ababa ceasefire declaration, which followed the visit of David Satterfield, the United States’ special envoy for the Horn of Africa , in the Ethiopian capital this week.
(Reporting by the Addis Ababa office, written by George Obulutsa; French version Elena Vardon)