A murderous civil war has been raging in Ethiopia for almost two years. Now there is hope for the people of the Tigray region. The government in Addis Ababa and the rebels agree to resume humanitarian aid and hand over heavy weapons.
In Ethiopia, peace efforts continue to make progress. The government in Addis Ababa and the Tigray rebels in the north of the country signed an agreement in Nairobi this Saturday that lays out the roadmap for the planned peace deal that both sides agreed on earlier this month.
The African Union (AU) chief envoy, Olusegun Obasanjo, said the agreement would improve humanitarian access and protect civilians. The agreement will come into effect immediately. “There are people in the affected areas who are dying because they don’t have access to humanitarian aid and this cannot go on,” Obasanjo said.
As part of the latest deal, Tigray troops are also scheduled to surrender their heavy weapons. This is to serve in parallel with the withdrawal of all forces from the region that do not belong to the Ethiopian military, it said. The exact plans for implementing the agreement remain unclear. On November 2, the central government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) initially agreed on a ceasefire after almost two years of war.
Both sides had been fighting each other for almost two years. Leading African states, like the US and the European Union, had called for an end to the fighting and the start of negotiations to avert further suffering from civilians. Fighting in Africa’s second most populous country has displaced millions, thousands of civilians have been killed and parts of Tigray are starving.
The Tigray rebels accuse Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of centralizing power at the expense of Ethiopia’s regions. Abiy denies this and in return accuses the TPLF of wanting to regain power in the country. The TPLF was the dominant force in the state until Abiy was elected Prime Minister in 2018.
