This is a significant but fragile step towards the implementation of the peace agreement signed on November 2 between the Ethiopian government and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (FPLT). The rebels and the Ethiopian federal authorities agreed on Saturday, November 12, to grant a “humanitarian access to all those in need in Tigray”in the grip of a deadly war for two years, as well as in neighboring regions.
The agreement signed by Marshal Berhanu Jula, Chief of Staff of the Ethiopian Armed Forces (ENDF), and General Tadesse Worede, Commander-in-Chief of the Tigray rebel forces, comes amid talks in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on the implementation of the peace agreement signed in South Africa ten days ago.
According to former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union (AU) special envoy for the Horn of Africa, this humanitarian access to Tigray will be guaranteed ” with immediate effect “.
“Silencing the Guns”
“Our commitment is to bring stability and peace”, assured Marshal Berhanu Jula during the meeting. This agreement is a means of “silencing the guns”according to former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, another AU special envoy.
Ethiopian federal authorities said in a statement posted on Twitter on Saturday that “Efforts are being made to provide humanitarian aid to most of the Tigray region” controlled by the ENDFs. “Basic services are slowly being restored in some areas”continues the press release.
On Thursday, the government in Addis Ababa said that aid “flowing like never before” in Tigray. Authorities also said they control about 70% of the Tigray region. These claims “are not based on any reality”then responded to Agence France-Presse Getachew Reda, spokesman for the rebel authorities in Tigray.
An aid worker based in Tigray had also denied to the news agency any arrival of aid in this region of six million inhabitants, almost cut off from the world and in the grip of a very serious humanitarian crisis. On Wednesday, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom, himself a Tigrayan and a former senior official of the party from which the rebel authorities came, had already denounced the absence of arrival of aid to Tigray since the peace agreement signed in Pretoria.
Despite the peace agreement, access to part of northern Ethiopia, including Tigray, remains forbidden to journalists. It is therefore impossible to verify these assertions and to know the precise positions of the belligerents before or since the peace agreement.
Closed-door conflict “one of the deadliest in the world”
Fighting in Tigray resumed on August 24 after a five-month truce. The region is cut off from the rest of the country and deprived of electricity, telecommunications networks, banking services and fuel. The road and air transport of humanitarian aid has also been completely interrupted since the resumption of fighting.
The conflict began in November 2020, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abyi Ahmed sent the federal army there to arrest leaders in the region, who had challenged his authority for months and whom he accused of attacking federal military bases on square.
Initially defeated, the Tigray rebel forces regained control of most of the region during 2021, during a counter-offensive. The rebels then retreated towards Tigray.
The outcome of this conflict marked by countless abuses, which took place largely behind closed doors, is unknown. But the International Crisis Group (ICG) and Amnesty International (AI) describe it as “one of the deadliest in the world”. Crimes against humanity have been committed “by all parties” in all “impunity” in Tigray, had accused Amnesty International on October 26, which did not exclude a “genocide”.
The war has also led to the displacement of more than two million Ethiopians and plunged hundreds of thousands into near-starvation conditions, according to the UN.