The Ethiopian government said Thursday peace talks over the nearly two-year war in Tigray would begin next week in South Africa.
Since the African Union’s failed attempt earlier this month to bring the warring factions to the negotiating table, international calls for an end to the escalation of violence in northern Ethiopia have mounted.
“AUC (African Union Commission) has informed us that peace talks are scheduled to take place in South Africa for 24 October 2022. We have reiterated our commitment to participate,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s national security adviser Redwan Hussein wrote on Twitter.
“However, we are dismayed that some are anxious to preempt the peace talks and spread false accusations against the defense measures.”
A spokesman for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was not immediately available for comment.
Government and TPLF leaders had agreed to attend talks this month to be mediated by AU envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, South Africa’s former Vice President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
But the South Africa meeting never took place, blaming logistical problems.
The struggle has since spiraled.
The government vowed this week to remove airports and other federal sites from rebel control as part of “defense measures.”
Ethiopian forces and their Eritrean allies say they have captured a number of towns in the contested region, which has been largely under rebel control since mid-2021.
– fear for civilians –
The advance of their armies has stoked fear among civilians, aid workers and displaced people caught in the crossfire.
Witnesses had reported heavy shelling at civilian centers such as Shire, a town where an International Rescue Committee worker was among three people killed last week.
The UN said this week the situation was spiraling out of control, taking an “absolutely staggering” toll on civilians.
Virtually cut off from the outside world, Tigray and its six million people face catastrophic shortages of fuel, food and medicine, and lack basic services, including communications and electricity.
An estimated two million people have been displaced from their homes in northern Ethiopia and millions more need help, according to the UN, with reports of widespread atrocities including massacres and rapes.
The death toll remains unknown.
The conflict began on November 4, 2020, when Abiy – a Nobel Peace Prize winner – sent troops to Tigray after accusing the TPLF of attacking federal army camps.
The TPLF had dominated Ethiopia’s ruling political alliance for decades before Abiy took power in 2018, marginalizing the party.
