Ethiopia’s rebel leaders in the embattled Tigray region have announced they would respect a ceasefire as fighting intensified in the country’s war-torn north, reported The TRT World.
The statement follows Africa Union’s plea to the rival factions involved in the two-year-old conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region to implement an immediate, unconditional cease-fire and agree to direct peace talks.
International concern is mounting around the fate of city of Shire, which is home to some 100,000 people in northwest Tigray, where Ethiopian and Eritrean troops have launched a joint offensive resulting in a lot of civilian casualties. The violence has intensified since a truce between the rivals collapsed in August.
The United Nations (UN) chief Antonio Guterres voiced alarm along with the United States and other Western powers over the worsening violence in Tigray and called for a peaceful settlement to the catastrophic conflict.
On Sunday, African Union Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat also made an appeal to the warring sides to Ethiopia’s conflict to recommit to dialogue as per their agreement to direct talks to be convened in South Africa.
“The Chairperson strongly calls for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire and the resumption of humanitarian services” to areas cut off by the fighting, Faki said in a statement.
The rebel leaders in Tigray, which has been under rebel control since June 2021, welcomed the statement and said they would respect an internationally backed ceasefire.
“We are ready to abide by an immediate cessation of hostilities,” their statement read.
In the statement, the rebel leaders called on the international community to compel the Eritrean army to withdraw from Tigray, take practical steps towards an immediate cessation of hostilities, and press Ethiopia’s government to come to the negotiating table.
Notably, the negotiations scheduled to start last week in South Africa failed to materialize and no new date has been announced yet.
