ETHIOPIA: On Sunday, the African Union head demanded an immediate end to hostilities in Ethiopia’s Tigray area and urged all parties to the two-year-old war to consent to lead peace negotiations.
Since late 2020, the Ethiopian government and its allies have intermittently engaged in combat with Tigray forces. The violence has resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians, the eviction of millions, and the potential hunger for hundreds of thousands of people.
The battle was started, according to each side, by the other. AU chair Moussa Faki stated that he was highly concerned by news of the rising violence in Tigray.
The AU stated that “the chairperson strongly calls for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire and the resumption of humanitarian services.”
The AU-led peace negotiations initially scheduled for this month were postponed for practical reasons.
Authorities in Tigray declared that their troops would abide by an immediate cease-fire.
Legesse Tulu, a spokesman for the Ethiopian government, Colonel Getnet Adane, Redwan Hussein, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s national security adviser, and Billene Seyoum, Abiy’s spokesperson, did not immediately respond to demands for comment.
Samantha Power, the director of USAID, joined the demand on Sunday for the combined onslaught by the Eritrean Defence Forces and Ethiopian federal forces to cease.
Bob Menendez, the chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, declared on Saturday that in the absence of a cease-fire, he would work to enact legislation imposing sanctions on individuals obstructing efforts to halt hostilities or those who supply the combatants with weapons.
Power tweeted, “With as many as one million people teetering on the edge of famine, we urge all parties… to agree to a ceasefire, and call for safe and unhindered humanitarian access and withdrawal of the EDF from Ethiopia.”
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