The international community on Monday urged warring factions in Ethiopia to seize the moment for peace after Tigrayan rebels said they were ready for African Union-led talks to end nearly two years of brutal warfare.
There has been a spate of diplomatic efforts to advance negotiations after fighting flared up in northern Ethiopia in late August for the first time in several months, torpedoing a humanitarian ceasefire and disrupting aid shipments to war-torn Tigray.
Tigrayan authorities said on Sunday they were “ready to take part in a robust peace process under the auspices of the African Union” after previously rejecting AU mediation and saying they wanted Kenya to lead all talks.
“We stand ready to adhere to an immediate and amicable cessation of hostilities,” the Tigray regional government said in a statement coinciding with Ethiopia’s New Year.
The government has not officially commented on Tigrayan’s stance, but previously said it was ready for unconditional talks “anytime, anywhere,” brokered by the AU, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has so far vehemently opposed the role of AU envoy to the Horn of Africa Olusegun Obasanjo, protesting his “closeness” to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Scores of civilians have been killed since war broke out in Africa’s second most populous country in November 2020, and fighting has left millions of people in northern Ethiopia in need of emergency relief.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on “the parties to seize this opportunity for peace and to take steps to end the violence once and for all and to choose dialogue”.
– ‘Unique Opportunity’ –
AU Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat also hailed the development as a “unique opportunity to restore peace” and urged “both parties to urgently work towards an immediate ceasefire and engage in direct talks.”
Similar messages were issued by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
“We call on the country’s leaders to set Ethiopia on a path that ends suffering and achieves lasting peace,” Blinken said in a statement.
Ethiopia’s international partners are ready to support the peace process, he said, but added: “Eritrea and others should stop fueling the conflict.”
Since hostilities resumed on August 24, fighting has raged on multiple fronts in northern Ethiopia, with both sides blaming the other for firing first and breaking a March truce.
The TPLF also accused Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea, whose forces were involved in the early stages of the war, of launching a massive joint offensive against Tigray on September 1.
Access to northern Ethiopia is severely restricted and it is not possible to check what is happening on the ground.
– “Unrestricted Access for Humanitarian Aid” –
The Tigray Declaration did not mention any preconditions for talks, although it said Tigrayans expected a “credible” peace process with “mutually acceptable” mediators and international observers.
TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael last week proposed a conditional ceasefire, calling for “unrestricted humanitarian access” and the restoration of basic services in Tigray, whose six million people are suffering from food shortages and lack of electricity, communications and banking services.
In a letter to Guterres, he also called for the withdrawal of Eritrean forces from across Ethiopia and the withdrawal of troops from western Tigray, a disputed region claimed by both Tigrayans and Amharas, the country’s second-largest ethnic group.
Debretsion announced last month that two rounds of confidential face-to-face meetings had taken place between senior civilian and military officials, the first confirmation from either side of direct contacts.
Sunday’s statement said a negotiating team, which included TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda and Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae, a former Ethiopian army chief now at Tigray’s central military command, “stands ready to be deployed immediately.”
The March ceasefire had allowed humanitarian convoys to travel to Tigray’s capital, Mekele, for the first time since mid-December.
But the United Nations said last week renewed fighting had forced a halt to aid supplies to Tigray by both road and air.
Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, sent troops to Tigray to overthrow the TPLF in November 2020 in response to attacks by the group on federal army camps, he said.
But the TPLF retook most of Tigray in a surprise comeback in June 2021.
It then expanded into neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara before fighting reached a stalemate.
