Tigray rebels adhere to ‘cessation of hostilities’ after Ethiopia declares armistice
Tigrayan rebels agreed to a “cessation of hostilities” on Friday, a new turning point in the nearly 17-month war in northern Ethiopia after the government announced an indefinite humanitarian truce the day before.
In a statement sent to AFP early Friday, the rebels said they were “committed to implementing the effective cessation of hostilities immediately,” and urged the Ethiopian authorities to speed up the delivery of emergency aid to Tigray, where hundreds of thousands are facing starvation.
Since the war broke out in November 2020, thousands have died, and many more have been forced to flee their homes as the conflict has spread from Tigray to neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government announced a surprise truce, saying it hoped the move would facilitate humanitarian aid access to Tigray and “pave the way to resolving the conflict” in northern Ethiopia.
It called on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front to “stop all other acts of aggression and withdraw from the areas it occupied in the neighboring areas.”
The rebels, in turn, urged “the Ethiopian authorities to go beyond empty promises and take concrete steps to facilitate unrestricted humanitarian access to Tigray.”
The conflict erupted when Abiy sent troops to Tigray to overthrow the Tigray Liberation Front, the former ruling party in the region, saying the move was in response to rebel attacks on army camps.
The fighting has continued for more than a year, causing a humanitarian crisis, with accounts of mass rapes and massacres emerging, with both sides accused of human rights abuses.
According to the United Nations, more than 400,000 people have been displaced in Tigray.
The area was also subject to what the United Nations says is a de facto blockade.
The United States accused Abiy’s government of preventing aid from reaching those in need, while the authorities, in turn, blamed the rebels for obstructing it.
The United Nations said in January that nearly 40 percent of the population of Tigray, a region of six million people, faced “acute food shortages,” as fuel shortages forced aid workers to deliver medicine and other vital supplies on foot.
Western countries have urged both sides to agree to a ceasefire, with the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada welcoming the truce announcement.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the US “urges all parties to build on this declaration to advance a sustainable and negotiated ceasefire, including the necessary security arrangements.”
The EU delegation in Ethiopia said on Twitter: “#EU welcomes the announcement of the humanitarian truce by the government of #Ethiopia and the statement of cessation of hostilities by the Tigrayan authorities.”
Diplomats led by Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union’s special envoy for the Horn of Africa, have been trying for months to broker peace talks, without clear progress so far.
The government earlier announced a “unilateral ceasefire” in Tigray in June last year, after the Tigray People’s Liberation Front launched a sudden comeback and recaptured the area from federal forces before expanding into Amhara and Afar.
But the fighting intensified in the second half of 2021, with the rebels at one point claiming to be within 200 kilometers (125 miles) of the capital, Addis Ababa, before coming to a standstill.
(AFP)
