21st December, 2021
Tigrayan forces fighting the central government have withdrawn from neighbouring regions in Ethiopia’s north, a Tigrayan spokesman said on Monday.
The move was being speculated to be connected with step towards a possible ceasefire after major territorial gains by the Ethiopian military.
The 13-month-old war in Africa’s second-most-populous nation has destabilised an already fragile region, sent 60,000 refugees into Sudan, pulled Ethiopian soldiers away from war-ravaged Somalia and drawn in armed forces from neighbouring Eritrea.
“We have just completed the withdrawal of our forces from both Amhara and Afar regions,” said Getachew Reda, a spokesman for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party controlling most of the northerly region of Tigray.
Writing on Twitter, Getachew added that the TPLF hoped the pullout would induce the international community to put pressure on the governments of Ethiopia and neighbouring Eritrea, allies in the conflict, to cease military operations in Tigray.
TPLF head Debretsion Gebremichael called for a no-fly zone for hostile aircraft over Tigray, arms embargoes on Ethiopia and Eritrea, and a U.N. mechanism to verify that external armed forces have left Tigray – all requests that the Ethiopian government is likely to oppose.
“We trust that our bold act of withdrawal will be a decisive opening for peace,” Debretsion wrote in a letter to the United Nations outlining the TPLF’s demands.
The TPLF accuses Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of wanting to centralise power at the expense of Ethiopia’s regions.
Abiy denies the accusation.
Abiy, whose appointment in 2018 brought nearly three decades of TPLF dominance over Ethiopia to an end, says the TPLF wanted to hang onto central power – something the Tigrayan leadership denies.
International mediators including the African Union and United States have repeatedly tried to negotiate a ceasefire to allow aid to enter Tigray, but both sides have refused until certain conditions were met.
In June, the Ethiopian and Eritrean militaries withdrew from Tigray after reports of mass killings of civilians, gang rapes and blocking of aid supplies. The government has said it has prosecuted individual soldiers, although it has provided no details, and denied blocking aid.
In July, Tigrayan forces invaded Afar and Amhara. The Ethiopian military launched an offensive at the end of November that pushed the Tigrayan forces back hundreds of kilometres (miles).
Reuters reporters travelling to liberated towns in Amhara saw signs of heavy fighting, and local residents reported abuses such as killings and rapes by Tigrayan fighters. The TPLF has said any soldiers found guilty would be punished.