After the ceasefire: negotiations on the Tigray conflict enter the next round “You never know if they’ll pick you up”: how a Russian fled from mobilization

Barely a week after the ceasefire agreement in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the central government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) are renegotiating.

Monday’s meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi would include: Access for humanitarian aid to the region and to rebuilding infrastructure, the African Union said. Five days were planned for the negotiations.

At the start of the talks, both sides kept a promise made in the ceasefire agreement. The parties to the conflict agreed on this last Wednesday after nearly two years of war. The immediate ceasefire is intended to lay the foundation for a peace process. The conflict between the government in Addis Ababa and the TPLF started in November 2020.

The meeting in Kenya was attended by Birhanu Jula, the Supreme Commander of the Ethiopian Armed Forces, and Tadesse Worede, the Supreme Commander of the Tigra Forces. The AU once again assumes the role of mediator in the negotiations.

Meanwhile there was Reports of renewed battles between government troops and fighters of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) in the town of Nekemte, about 200 kilometers west of the capital Addis Ababa. The OLA entered the fight against the central government on the side of the TPLF in 2021. “We have destroyed several military facilities in the city and released 120 political prisoners,” OLA spokesman Odaa Tarbii said on Sunday. The government did not initially confirm this. The OLA was not part of the peace negotiations; neighboring Eritrea, which is involved in the conflict, is also not involved in the talks.

(sda/dpa)