Ethiopia: Tigray rebels agree to a ceasefire


The rebels of the Tigray region, in conflict for 17 months with the Ethiopian army, pledged Friday, March 25 to respect a ceasefire, a few hours after the announcement by the Ethiopian government of a “indefinite humanitarian truce“.

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In a statement issued on Friday morning, the Tigrayan rebels “undertake to implement a cessation of hostilities, effective immediatelyand call on the Ethiopian government totake concrete steps to facilitate unrestricted access to Tigrayregion of northern Ethiopia where hunger threatens. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government on Thursday decreed a “unilateral humanitarian truce“, to allow “the free flow of humanitarian aid to those in need of assistancein Tigray, where no humanitarian aid convoy has arrived by road since 15 December. While considering that “linking political and humanitarian issues is unacceptable“, the rebels say they are determined that the ceasefire “be a success» and assure that they «will do their best to give peace a chance“.

4.6 million food insecure

Pro-government and rebel forces from Tigray have been clashing in northern Ethiopia since in November 2020 Abiy Ahmed, Nobel Peace Prize winner the year before, sent the federal army to dislodge authorities from the then-governed region. by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which had been challenging his authority for months. Quickly defeated, the rebel troops of the TPLF then, during 2021, militarily recaptured Tigray and the conflict has since spread to the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar. The nearly 17 months of conflict, marked by multiple abuses, have caused a serious humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia, where more than nine million people need food aid, according to the World Food Program (WFP) of the UN.

In Tigray, the WFP estimated in January that 4.6 million people, or 83% of the approximately six million inhabitants of the region, were in a situationfood insecurity“, while two million suffered from a “extreme shortage of food“. Since mid-February, humanitarian operations in Tigray – where more than 400,000 people have been displaced by the conflict – have been virtually interrupted by shortages of fuel and cash there, according to the UN.

Diplomatic efforts

Fighting in the Afar region is preventing the passage of road convoys of food aid and fuel on the only operational land route, which connects Semera, capital of Afar, and Mekele, capital of Tigray. The UN has long denounced a “de facto humanitarian blockadeof Tigray, for which the government and the rebels have blamed each other. Foreign diplomats led by Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union’s special envoy for the Horn of Africa, have been trying for months to secure peace talks, with little visible progress.

Washington, whose special envoy for the Horn of Africa David Satterfield was in Ethiopia this week, “urges all parties to rely“on the announcement of a truce”to advance a negotiated and lasting ceasefire, including the necessary security arrangements“, said early Friday the US State Department. “The European Union welcomes the humanitarian truce decreed by the government of Ethiopia and the cessation of hostilities decided by the authorities of Tigrayreacted the EU representation in Addis Ababa. William Davison, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Ethiopia, believes that “the unconditional and unrestricted flow of aid could also help build enough confidence to pave the way for ceasefire talks and, ultimately, dialogue“.

The Ethiopian government had already decreed a unilateral ceasefire on June 28, when TPLF forces entered Mekele. This ceasefire only ran “until the end of the cropping season“. The fighting then resumed, the TPLF rebels advancing in Amhara and Afar, until they claimed to be 200 km from Addis Ababa. They had withdrawn to Tigray at the end of December, after a counter-offensive by the Ethiopian army which had indicated that it would not enter the region. This withdrawal had raised the hope of seeing the opening of negotiations, quickly showered when the TPLF announced that it would resume fighting in Afar at the end of January.


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