UN Secretary General António Guterres has welcomed the agreement between the Ethiopian Army and Tigray rebels that sets the conditions for the implementation of the peace agreement.
Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said through a UN statement that both sides must act urgently to make the rule operational.
«The Secretary-General welcomes yesterday’s agreement between the senior leadership of the Ethiopian Army and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front setting out the modalities for the implementation of the Permanent Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA),» Dujarric explained.
In this line, Guterres reiterated the readiness of the UN «to support this critical process».
In addition, the head of the organization has called on the parties «to move forward urgently» with the aim of «translating the agreement into concrete improvements for civilians on the ground, including accelerating the facilitation of humanitarian access and the restoration of essential services».
This weekend Ethiopian military officials and rebels in the Tigray region agreed to form a joint committee to implement an international «disarmament, demobilization and reintegration» program and facilitate humanitarian corridors, after five days of meeting in Nairobi.
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 election 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.
