Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday urged for a peaceful resolution to Ethiopia’s ongoing Tigray conflict, reported Al Jazeera.
He also said Turkey is ready to mediate between Ethiopia and Sudan to get their border issue resolved.
During a joint news conference with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Wednesday, Erdogan said that Ethiopia’s “peace and integrity is important to us”. He said if the situation deteriorates, all countries in the region will be affected.
The conflict in Tigray began in November last year after political fallout between Abiy and the leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the region’s then governing party, which had dominated the country’s government for about three decades.
The nine-month-long war in Tigray has killed thousands of innocent civilians. The civilians in Tigray also had to face gang rapes, manmade local famines, and mass expulsions by Ethiopian and allied forces.
Ethiopians in large numbers have fled to Sudanese refugee camps, to escape the conflict that has pushed over 400,000 people into famine-like conditions. In July, the United Nations warned more than 100,000 children in Tigray could face life-threatening malnutrition in the coming 12 months.
“The peace, tranquility, and integrity of Ethiopia, which has a strategic location and importance in Africa, is important to us,” the Turkish president said. “All the countries in the region will be affected by the worsening of the situation (over Tigray).”
Erdogan added that Turkey was also willing to get to a peaceful resolution of a dispute between Ethiopia and Sudan related to large swaths of fertile agricultural land in the al-Fashaqa area.
He said that the Turkish government is ready to make any contribution to an amicable resolution of the problem, including mediation.
During Erdogan and Abiy’s meeting, the two governments signed strategic military agreements, including a military financial cooperation deal.
