Ethiopia's PM Meets Tigray Leaders
Ethiopian officials and state media reported on Friday that PM Abiy Ahmed had held his first in-person talks with Tigrayan leaders since the federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) struck a peace deal to permanently halt hostilities.
Facts
- Ethiopian officials and state media reported on Friday that PM Abiy Ahmed had held his first in-person talks with Tigrayan leaders since the federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) struck a peace deal to permanently halt hostilities.
- Though Tigray leaders haven't issued a statement on the meeting, Ethiopia's National Security Adviser Redwan Hussein announced that flights and banking services would be increased to northern Tigray.
- The meeting came almost a month after Tigrayan rebels began giving up their heavy weapons in accordance with the Pretoria ceasefire agreement signed late last year to end the deadly conflict that broke out in November 2020 and killed thousands.
- According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), some 60K people were forced to cross the border into Sudan, and millions of Ethiopians were displaced internally due to the fighting.
- The war reportedly stemmed from old territorial and other complaints opposing the political elites of Tigray and other regions, intensified by decades of turmoil, violent regime change, and long spans of authoritarian rule.
- While hope emerges that the situation in Tigray will stabilize, clashes between Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups have escalated since last year, sparking security concerns.
Sources: Al Jazeera, Washington Post, Guardian, UNHCR, Reuters, and DW.
Narratives
- Narrative A, as provided by Ethiopia Insight. Though the peace deal signals the end of the fighting, it remains to be seen whether it will hold. Polarization and a lack of dialogue have caused immense suffering to the Tigrayan people, so it's time for all stakeholders to provide constructive contributions to alleviate the political and humanitarian crisis in the region.
- Narrative B, as provided by Press. Ethiopia has become a continental beacon of dialogue-based mechanisms for conflict prevention and resolution, showing that African problems can indeed be solved by African solutions. As the federal government has agreed to implement this peace deal without any preconditions, it has proved its commitment to bringing peace and stability to the country.
