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 that, the two sides were invited to hold talks in South Africa, according to a letter written by African Union President Musa Faki Mohamed.
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 area, with a population of six million people, faces a severe decrease in food, fuel, medicines and other emergency supplies, as the United Nations World Food Program warned of high malnutrition rates..
African Union: A pact to end hostilities in Ethiopia
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