NAIROBI —
Ethiopian government officials met with representatives of the Tigrayan
authorities in Kenya on Monday to discuss plans for disarming the rebels
following a peace deal signed last week between the warring sides.
اضافة اعلان
The breakthrough
accord inked in South Africa, which has been hailed internationally as a key
step towards ending the two-year conflict, includes a timetable for disarming
the rebels, according to a copy of the document seen by AFP.
In a statement
issued Monday, the
African Union (AU), which mediated the Pretoria talks, said
it had convened a meeting of senior commanders from both sides to “discuss and
work out ... disarmament issues, taking into account the security situation on
the ground”.
Field Marshal
Berhanu Jula, chief of staff of the Ethiopian Armed Forces, and Gen. Tadesse
Worede, commander-in-chief of the Tigray rebel forces, will lead the talks,
negotiators told reporters in Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
The government’s
chief negotiator Redwan Hussein, who is also national security adviser to Prime
Minister Abiy Ahmed, said: “Political leaders have signed the agreement, but
our military leaders will pave the way to expedite the implementation.”
According to the
AU statement, “the meeting should also provide a roadmap for immediate
humanitarian access and restoration of services in the Tigray region”.
Ethiopia’s
northernmost region has been in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis for
over a year due to lack of food and medicine, as well as limited access to
basic services including electricity and banking.
Getachew Reda,
chief negotiator for the
Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), told
reporters it was up to the military commanders “to figure out how effectively
to carry out the deal and to make sure that we continue to hold our fire and,
of course, silence the guns forever”.
Tigray remains
inaccessible to journalists and it is impossible to verify if violence has
eased since the agreement was signed.
The war between
the TPLF and pro-Abiy forces, which include regional militias and the Eritrean
army, has caused an untold number of deaths and sparked reports of horrific
abuses by all parties.
Estimates of
casualties vary widely, with the US saying that as many as half a million
people have died, while the EU’s foreign envoy Josep Borrell said last week
that possibly more than 100,000 people have been killed.
UN investigators
have accused Addis Ababa of possible crimes against humanity in Tigray and of
using starvation as a weapon of war — claims denied by the Ethiopian
authorities.
Abiy — a Nobel
Peace Prize laureate — sent troops into Tigray on November 4, 2020 to topple
the TPLF, the region’s ruling party, in response to what he said were attacks
on federal army camps.
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