Ethiopia halts war against Tigray rebels, US supports truce

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia/ NAIROBI, Kenya

The Ethiopian government on Thursday announced a humanitarian truce in its war against the Tigray rebels, a move welcomed by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and hailed by the US.

The government of Abiy Ahmed has been fighting against the forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a hitherto all-too-powerful party that controlled Ethiopian politics for 27 years up till 2018, since November 2020 in a complex fallout that began when the rebels attacked federal army bases in Tigray.

The unilateral truce announced by the Government Communication Service came amidst mounting pressures by the US government that has also been threatening, what many see as, a debilitating sanction regime with HR6600 – a bill that will choke Ethiopia off international financial instruments.

The statement, which also called for a reciprocation of the gesture from the “other side”, said the truce was declared for an indefinite time effective immediately.

Rebels agree to cessation of hostilities

In a statement issued on Friday, the TPLF said they were “committed to implementing a cessation of hostilities effective immediately.”

The statement called on the Ethiopian government “to take concrete steps to provide unfettered humanitarian access to Tigray.”

“The government of Tigray is committed to implementing a cessation of hostilities effective immediately, and will do everything it can to make sure that this cessation of hostilities is a success,” the statement from TPLF added.

The United Nations said in January that up to 40% of people in Tigray, a region of an estimated 6 million people, need emergency assistance. It said aid workers were going on foot due to fuel shortages in the region to deliver aid smoothly.

The rebels called on the Ethiopian government to also restore telecommunications and banking services among other key services that would save countless lives.

US hails truce

Meanwhile, the US immediately welcomed the move by the Horn of Africa nation.

“The United States welcomes and strongly supports the declaration today by the Government of Ethiopia of an indefinite humanitarian truce, effective immediately, and the commitment to work in collaboration with humanitarian organizations to expedite the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to all those in need,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

HR6600, which is called Ethiopia’s Stabilization, Peace, and Democracy Act, is largely seen in Ethiopia and among diaspora Ethiopians as an instrument of arm-twisting.

While Ethiopians in the US and elsewhere are bracing up for huge protests, Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen told US Special Envoy David Satterfield that the Act should never be passed or it will “sever” relations between Ethiopia and the US.