The Tigrayan rebels have announced that they have arrived in South Africa, where peace talks with the Ethiopian government are due to begin on Monday, October 24 in order to find a peaceful solution to the war that has ravaged northern Ethiopia for two years.
The federal government delegation left Addis Ababa in the morning, the government’s communication service announced on Twitter, saying that these discussions, under the aegis of the AU, are “an opportunity to resolve the conflict peacefully and consolidate the improvement in the situation on the ground made possible by the sacrifices of the army“.
“Immediate cessation of hostilities”
Tigrayan rebels and the federal army – supported by forces from neighboring Ethiopian regions and the army of Eritrea, a country bordering Tigray – have been clashing since November 2020 in a deadly conflict that has plunged northern Ethiopia in a deep humanitarian crisis. A spokesman for the rebel authorities in Tigray, Kindeya Gebrehiwot, announced the arrival of a delegation on Twitter overnight. He also repeated rebel demands to “immediate cessation of hostilities, unimpeded humanitarian access and withdrawal of Eritrean forces“.
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Previous talks, convened in early October in South Africa by the AU, had fizzled before they even started, against a backdrop of organizational problems. On Thursday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the war was going “end and peace prevail“. “We won’t keep fighting forever“, he said, without however mentioning the next discussions and while the pro-government forces have recently stepped up their offensive in Tigray.
Concern of the international community
After a five-month truce, fighting resumed on August 24. Ethiopian and Eritrean forces captured Shire, one of Tigray’s main towns, last week. A humanitarian source told AFP that intense fighting was taking place on Friday in Selekelka, between Shire and Aksoum, another major city in Tigray and an ancient site listed as a World Heritage Site.
The international community has expressed alarm at the recent escalation of fighting. Both the UN Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council held meetings on the subject on Friday. US State Department spokesman Ned Price noted that these meetings “demonstrate the great concern of the international communityand renewed US calls for a resumption of humanitarian aid and the withdrawal of Eritrean troops.
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The war began in November 2020 when Abiy Ahmed sent the army to Tigray to dislodge regional authorities who challenged his authority and whom he accused of attacking military bases. The exact toll of this conflict, which is largely taking place behind closed doors, with journalists not having access to the area, is unknown. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Friday that “scale of fighting and death rivals what we see in Ukraine“. According to her, “in two years of conflict up to half a million people died“.