After almost two years since war broke out in the Africa’s second most populous country in November 2020, Ethiopian government and the TPLF reached an agreement on Wednesday to sheath their swords after two years of catastrophic conflict which have claimed thousands of lives and left millions displaced with many in need of aid.
The cessation of hostilities between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and Tigrayan rebels was announced after little over a week of negotiations led by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo.
In a joint statement, the government and representatives of Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said after series of talks “We have agreed to permanently silence the guns and end the two years of conflict in northern Ethiopia,”
African Union’s mediator, President Olusegun Obasanjo said the dicision was the beginning of “a new dawn for Ethiopia, for the Horn of Africa and indeed for Africa as a whole,”
Obasanjo said in a briefing in Pretoria “The two parties in the Ethiopian conflict have formally agreed to the cessation of hostilities as well as the systematic, orderly, smooth and coordinated disarmament,”
While the euphoria of peace deal is signaling green light it was not yet clear if Eritrea’s feared army will immediately withdraw from the battlefield.
However, the delegations in Pretoria said it was now up to both sides to honor the agreement, while Abiy himself vowed a “strong” commitment to its implementation.
The head of the government team, Abiy’s national security adviser Redwan Hussein, praised the sides for their “constructive engagement to allow the country to put this tragic period of conflict behind us”.
Similarly, Tigrayan delegation chief Getachew Reda said they were ready to “implement and expedite this agreement”, adding: “In order to address the pains of our people, we have made concessions because we have to build trust.”
UN hails the development as a “a very welcome first step,” while Washington claims a “major breakthrough” in regards to Ethiopia’s announcement of a cessation of hostilities between the government and the rebels in Tigray after over a week of negotiations led by the African Union in Pretoria, South Africa.
The war, which broke out in November 2020, has forced well over two million people from their homes, and according to US estimates killed as many as half a million.
Meanwhile, intense fighting still continued unabated in Tigray, where government troops backed by the Eritrean army and regional forces waged artillery bombardments and air strikes, capturing a string of towns from the rebels, according Africa news.
