The full document has yet to be released, but the agreement was announced on live television and praised by Redwan Hussein, the national security adviser to Ethiopia’s federal government and Getachew Reda from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls much of Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
Redwan thanked countries that had supported Ethiopia and took a slight swipe at others. The European Union froze budget support to Ethiopia and the United States suspended Ethiopia’s much-valued preferential trading status over human rights abuses committed during the war, including gang rapes and mass killings of civilians by the Ethiopian military and its allies.
“Our sisters and brothers from Africa remained true to their principled stance that Ethiopians must own and resolve their difference,” he said. “We hope others will learn … such a generous and firm direction.” But, he added, “it is now time to revitalize relations with our partners.”
Getachew from the TPLF said both fighters and civilians were dying as he spoke, calling for the deal to be “immediately implemented.”
The conflict broke out in November 2020, after Tigrayan soldiers seized military bases across Tigray following months of worsening relations between the new central government and the TPLF, which dominated national politics for nearly three decades until the appointment of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in 2018.
It will be the second time during the conflict that the two sides cease hostilities. A five-month cease fire declared by the government in March allowed convoys of desperately-needed food aid to enter the region, but that agreement fell apart with renewed fighting at the end of August. Since then, the Ethiopian military has captured large swaths of western, northern and southern Tigray with assistance from Eritrean soldiers. There have been several airstrikes that have killed large numbers of civilians.
Two important parties to the conflict were not represented in the talks: the government of neighboring Eritrea, whose troops have occupied large parts of Tigray, and representatives from Ethiopia’s Amhara region, which has a long-running border dispute with Tigray.
Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has long been an enemy of the TPLF and sees its leadership as an existential threat. Amhara leaders determined to keep control of their disputed territory have forged a strong relationship with Eritrea, rooted in distrust of Ethiopia’s central government and deep animosity with the TPLF.
Desalegn Chane, the president of the opposition National Movement of Amhara Party, said he welcomed the announcement but was disappointed it did not formally recognize Amhara’s jurisdiction over the territory disputed with Tigray. He also said the agreement “lacks clarity on justice and accountability.” Tigrayan fighters also committed gang rapes and killed civilians in Amhara territory, the United Nations has said, albeit on a smaller scale.
Eritrea’s information minister was not immediately available for comment.
The conflict already has killed tens of thousands of people, left hundreds of thousands facing famine and destroyed health and education infrastructure across swaths of northern Ethiopia.
Doctors at Ayder Referral Hospital, the biggest hospital in Tigray, said on Wednesday they had completely stopped offering dialysis because they had run out of medical supplies. One described nurses weeping as they sent home a much-loved patient to die a few weeks ago, his lungs filling with fluid because he could not be treated.
