PRETORIA, South Africa — Warring sides in the brutal two-year conflict in
Ethiopia’s Tigray on
Wednesday declared they had set the goal of “permanently” ending the fighting,
agreeing to a truce backed by a program of disarmament and integration of
rebels.
اضافة اعلان
“We have agreed to permanently silence the guns and
end the two years of conflict in northern Ethiopia,” the Ethiopian government
and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said in a joint statement after
marathon talks in South Africa.
The breakthrough was announced by the African
Union’s mediator, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo.
“The two parties in the Ethiopian conflict have
formally agreed to the cessation of hostilities as well as the systematic,
orderly, smooth and coordinated disarmament,” he said at a press conference in
Pretoria.
The agreement marked a new “dawn” for Ethiopia, he
said.
The joint statement said the two sides “concluded a
peace agreement” following “intensive negotiations.”
They notably agreed on a program of “disarmament,
demobilization, and reintegration for
TPLF combatants, taking into account the
security situation on the ground”, it said.
The more than week-long talks marked the first
formal dialogue for ending a war that has killed hundreds of thousands and
unleashed a humanitarian crisis.
The Tigrayan rebels hailed the deal and said they
had made “concessions”.
“We are ready to implement and expedite this
agreement,” said the head of their delegation, Getachew Reda.
“In order to address the pains of our people, we
have made concessions because we have to build trust.”
“Ultimately, the fact that we have reached a point
where we have now signed an agreement speaks volumes about the readiness on the
part of the two sides to lay the past behind them to chart a new path of
peace,” said Getachew.
The conflict erupted on November 4, 2020, when
Addis Ababa sent troops into Tigray after accusing the TPLF, the regional ruling
party, of attacking federal army camps.
According to US estimates, as many as half a million people
have died in the war.
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