Following Marathon discussions in South Africa on Wednesday, the African Union’s mediator announced that the warring sides have reached a truce in the two-year brutal conflict in the Ethiopian Tigray region.
“The two sides in the Ethiopian conflict officially agreed to cease hostilities and divert their weaponry in a systematic, controlled, smooth, and coordinated manner.”
The beginning of a new era for Ethiopia was likewise celebrated by the African Union.
Nearly two years after a violent conflict that ravaged the country’s north, the Addis Ababa government and Tigray rebels decided to request the African Union to start peace negotiations under the auspices of the mediators.
After thereafter, the African Union President Musa Faki Mohamed wrote a letter inviting the two parties to hold negotiations in South Africa.
According to a diplomatic source, a “Troika of negotiators” that included Olsigon Obasango, the Supreme Representative of the African Confederation of the Horn of Africa, and former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta conducted the negotiations that were overseen by the African Union.
The conflicting parties had previously disagreed over who should act as a mediator in the talks because both Kenyatta and the “Tigray People’s Liberation Front” sought to represent Abi Ahmed’s government in Upasango.
They also contested the return of Tigray’s essential services, including electricity, communications, and banks, which the Tigray rebels saw as a crucial prerequisite for discussion.
The United Nations World Food Program warned of high malnutrition rates in the region, which has a population of six million people, and cautioned that there will be a major shortage of food, fuel, medicines, and other critical supplies.
African Union: A pact to end hostilities in Ethiopia
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