Tigray conflict: Ethiopia and rebel forces agree truce

The Ethiopian government and rebel forces have agreed what mediators said will be “a permanent cessation of hostilities” on the eve of the second anniversary of one of the world’s most devastating wars, in Tigray, northern Ethiopia.

The announcement was made from South Africa, where formal African Union-led peace talks began last week.

“The two parties in the Ethiopian conflict have formally agreed to the cessation of hostilities,” said former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, who has been leading negotiations. “This moment is not the end of the peace process, but the beginning of it.”

The war in Tigray began on November 3rd, 2020. As many as 600,000 people may have died since then from direct attacks, starvation, a lack of medical care and other indirect causes, according to researchers from Ghent University.

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On opposing sides were Ethiopia’s government, led by prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed, and Tigray rebels associated with the former Ethiopian ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Ethiopian government forces are also aligned with forces from neighbouring Eritrea.

Over the last two years, Tigray has largely been cut off by blockades, with journalists prohibited from entering and communications severed, making it hard to access and verify information.

A five-month humanitarian truce was shattered in August. In October, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said the conflict was “spiralling out of control” and that a military end did not appear to be possible.

“Violence and destruction have reached alarming levels; the social fabric is being ripped apart,” he said.

The war has been catastrophic for Ethiopian civilians, more than five million of whom have been left in need of food aid, according to the UN. Last year, an estimated 400,000 people were said by the UN to be at “catastrophe” levels of food insecurity under the UN-backed Integrated food security Phase Classification (IPC) system, which can mean they are experiencing famine, if certain criteria are included.

Various analysts and commentators have pointed out the lack of international attention Ethiopia’s war gets in comparison to the war in Ukraine.

Journalist Jason Patinkin, who has been analysing the front pages of major news websites each day to see how many put reports about Tigray on their home pages, says the international media has been doing a “dismal” job of covering the war. “ I’m so, so, so disappointed and angry (yet sadly unsurprised) at how little media attention there is to the most devastating war on Earth,” he tweeted last month.

This week, Amnesty International said it was launching a campaign to underscore the gravity of Ethiopia’s human rights crisis.

“The international community must show solidarity with the victims and survivors of atrocity crimes in Ethiopia’s two-year conflict. Despite restrictions on access and communication shutdowns, Amnesty has repeatedly documented unspeakable abuses by all parties to the conflict, yet the response from the international community, including the African Union, has been dismal,” said Flavia Mwangovya, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for campaigns, in a statement.

“All parties have been responsible for serious violations, encompassing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including extrajudicial executions and summary killings of hundreds of people and sexual violence against women and girls.”