 won the Nobel Peace Prize a year before the war in Tigray beganForeign powers have hailed the truce signed by the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan leaders to end the brutal war in the north of the country and open up the flow of aid to those at risk of famine, but questions remain over whether it will succeed. A day after the applause died away at the signing ceremony in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, the sound of artillery is still booming over the mountains of Tigray. The deal conforms broadly with the objectives of Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed when he launched what he called a "law enforcement operation" against the party ruling the region - the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) - two years ago, almost to the day. There will be a process for the negotiated disarmament of the Tigrayan fighters. Mr Abiy's ascendancy is marked by the fact that the agreement is with the TPLF, not - as the Tigrayans had wanted - the "Government of Tigray". He is rejecting the 2020 elections in Tigray, won by the TPLF, and planning for a new poll.However, the federal government had demanded the complete surrender of the TPLF. It did not achieve that. It has promised to remove the TPLF's designation as a terrorist organisation, and enter political negotiations with it on how Tigray should be run.The agreement emphasises that both parties will abide by the existing federal constitution. This includes resolving the status of areas such as the agriculturally rich western Tigray - seized by the neighbouring Amhara region during the early weeks of the war - by constitutional means. It does not say whether the Tigrayan administration - and the farmers driven out - will return first.The humanitarian element of the agreement opens the door to ending the starvation and deprivation that have cost the lives of as many as a million people. This includes perhaps 10% of Tigray's population of aroun){kind=link}
Foreign powers have hailed the truce signed by the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan leaders to end the brutal war in the north of the country and open up the flow of aid to those at risk of famine, but questions remain over whether it will succeed.
A day after the applause died away at the signing ceremony in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, the sound of artillery is still booming over the mountains of Tigray.
The deal conforms broadly with the objectives of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed when he launched what he called a “law enforcement operation” against the party ruling the region – the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – two years ago, almost to the day.
There will be a process for the negotiated disarmament of the Tigrayan fighters.
Mr Abiy’s ascendancy is marked by the fact that the agreement is with the TPLF, not – as the Tigrayans had wanted – the “Government of Tigray”.