The Ethiopian government said Thursday that talks with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) on the group’s disarmament process will end «in the next few days» as part of the implementation of the cessation of hostilities agreement signed in November in South Africa.
The Government Communication Service has indicated in a statement that the first meeting between the Executive and the armed group has started during the day in the locality of Shire, after «assuming its functions» on Wednesday.
«The committee, which is composed of members of the government and armed Tigray fighters, is expected to complete its duties in the coming days,» it said in its statement, published on its account on the social network Twitter, before stressing that the plan «will address disarmament and related issues».
The Ethiopian ambassador to Kenya, Bacha Debele, has revealed that the TPLF will deliver its heavy weaponry during the day on Saturday. «On the delivery of heavy weapons, they should have delivered them on November 17, but now it has been decided that they will deliver them on December 3,» he said, as reported by the BBC.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) assured on November 23 that the process of delivery of the heavy weapons is linked to the withdrawal of the Ethiopian allied troops from the Tigray region (north), days after the government affirmed that this withdrawal depended on the disarmament process.
The conflict in Tigray erupted in November 2020 following a TPLF attack on the army’s main base in Mekelle, after which the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an offensive against the group following months of political and administrative tensions, including the TPLF’s refusal to recognize an electoral postponement and its decision to hold regional elections outside Addis Ababa.
The TPLF accuses Abiy of whipping up tensions since coming to power in April 2018, when he became the first Oromo to accede to office. Until then, the TPLF had been the dominant force within Ethiopia’s ruling coalition since 1991, the ethnically-supported Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The group opposed Abiy’s reforms, which it saw as an attempt to undermine its influence.
