Ethiopian government announces truce with Tigray Liberation Front
The Ethiopian government has officially announced an unspecified humanitarian truce with the Tigray Liberation Front, after the two sides have been locked in open conflict for months. According to the statement from the Ethiopian Federal Government Communications Office, the government also called on donors to double their contributions to improve the humanitarian situation in the region.
The statement also specified that the Ethiopian government took a decision to increase and streamline the number of UN flights by improving clearance procedures. This would help the delivery of fuel and cash for payments to humanitarian organisations.
The text reported that flights had been provided to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Health Organisation and the European Union to provide humanitarian aid. In addition, the government is facilitating the arrival and provision of assistance through a corridor opened in the Afar-Maqli region - the capital of the Tigray region.
The government stated that the situation of thousands of people living in the Tigray region requires urgent action to ensure that those in need receive all the assistance they require in their areas. It also expressed the hope that this truce would improve the humanitarian situation on the ground, and would pave the way for resolving the conflict in northern Ethiopia without further bloodshed. He also called for the Tigray Liberation Front to desist from all hostile actions and withdraw from the nearby areas they occupy.
The spokesman for the Tigrayan forces declined to respond to a request for comment on the announcement, Al Jazeera reported. The Ethiopian government spokesman told Reuters news agency that it was "a decision by the government to protect our citizens from danger", and that they expected "the other side [TPLF] to do the same".
Ethiopia has been mired in conflict between rebel troops and government forces since November 2020. The conflict erupted when Abiy sent a number of military personnel to Tigray to overthrow the Popular Liberation Front. This move was in response to several rebel attacks on army camps.
As Europa Press reports, "the TPLF blames the Abiy government for fuelling tensions since it came to power in 2018". Prior to that, the TPLF had been the main political force within the coalition that ruled the country together with the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front since 1991. The group refused Abiy's reforms, which it described as an attempt to weaken the leader's influence.
This confrontation has since claimed thousands of lives, and has triggered the humanitarian crisis in the country. According to the latest UN report, some 400 000 people are in a state of famine and more than nine million are in need of food aid in the north of the country.
In February 2022, the government of the Afar region of Ethiopia reported that more than 300 000 people had been displaced by the war there. In addition, the UN reported that fighting in Afar was blocking food supplies to the Tigray region. The conflict has caused millions of people to move to the surrounding regions of the country and to Sudan.
According to an Ethiopian government report, the TPLF had invaded the North African region in February. It also reported that the revolutionary troops had "massacred innocent people, looted and destroyed several institutions".