War is over in Ethiopia

Publié le 21 décembre 2021

Tigray Rebels Retreat back to Tigray.

Tigrayan forces fighting the central government have withdrawn from neighbouring regions in Ethiopia’s north, a Tigrayan spokesman said on Monday, a step towards a possible ceasefire after major territorial gains by the Ethiopian military.

The 13-month-old war in Africa’s second-most-populous nation has destabilised an already fragile region, sent 60,000 refugees into Sudan, pulled Ethiopian soldiers away from war-ravaged Somalia and drawn in armed forces from neighbouring Eritrea.

« We have just completed the withdrawal of our forces from both Amhara and Afar regions, » said Getachew Reda, a spokesman for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party controlling most of the northerly region of Tigray.

Writing on Twitter, Getachew added that the TPLF hoped the pullout would induce the international community to put pressure on the governments of Ethiopia and neighbouring Eritrea, allies in the conflict, to cease military operations in Tigray.

TPLF head Debretsion Gebremichael called for a no-fly zone for hostile aircraft over Tigray, arms embargoes on Ethiopia and Eritrea, and a U.N. mechanism to verify that external armed forces have left Tigray – all requests that the Ethiopian government is likely to oppose.

« We trust that our bold act of withdrawal will be a decisive opening for peace, » Debretsion wrote in a letter to the United Nations outlining the TPLF’s demands.

Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu and the prime minister’s spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(source: African INsider)