Nov. 2 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has celebrated the agreement reached between the Government of Ethiopia and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF) for the cessation of hostilities and has pointed out that it is a “fundamental step” for a possible end of the conflict.
Guterres has described the agreement as “a bold step” taken by both parties and has invited both the Ethiopian population and the international community as a whole to support the pact, according to a statement by the spokesman for the General Secretariat, Stéphane Dujarric.
“The Secretary-General pledges his support to the parties in implementing the provisions of the agreement and urges them to continue negotiations…in a spirit of reconciliation in order to reach a lasting political settlement, silence the guns and return the country to the path of peace and stability”, said Dujarric.
Likewise, in view of this agreement, Guterres has urged all the parties involved in the conflict to take advantage of the situation to provide the necessary humanitarian assistance in the areas most affected by the conflict, while at the same time removing essential public services.
Finally, the highest representative of the United Nations congratulated the African Union and South Africa for having promoted and hosted negotiations that, finally, have borne fruit in this cessation of hostilities at a time when the conflict is approaching its second year of activity .
The mediator of the African Union, Olusegun Obasanjo, announced this Wednesday that the Government of Ethiopia and the TPLF have signed an agreement for the cessation of hostilities in the framework of the conflict that has ravaged the Tigray region (north) since November 2020.
The talks were attended by former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and former South African Vice President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, as well as representatives of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the United Nations and the United States.
The TPLF agreed to sit down for a dialogue with the Ethiopian government at the beginning of October, an initiative proposed by the AU to reach a “peaceful resolution of the current conflict”. One of the conditions of the TPLF was that during the negotiations there be “additional actors” as observers or guarantors.
The war has worsened in recent weeks after the outbreak of new fighting in August after five months of humanitarian truce agreed between the parties. The TPLF previously denounced a large-scale offensive by the Eritrean Army in support of Ethiopian forces.
The conflict in Tigray broke out in November 2020 after an attack by the TPLF against the main Army base, located in Mekelle, after which the Abiy Ahmed government ordered an offensive against the group after months of political and administrative tensions. A “humanitarian truce” is currently in force, although both sides have accused each other of preventing the delivery of aid.
The TPLF has accused Abiy of stirring up tensions since he came to power in April 2018, when he became the first Oromo to take office. Until then, the TPLF had been the dominant force within the ethnically based coalition that had governed Ethiopia since 1991, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The group opposed Abiy’s reforms, seeing them as an attempt to undermine his influence.
