• News
  • Sport
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Education
  • TV Licences
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION
Home Africa

Foreign powers press Ethiopia for Tigray peace talks

16 November 2020, 7:43 PM  |
Reuters Reuters |  @SABCNews
Members of Amhara region militias ride on their truck as they head to the mission to face the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), in Sanja, Amhara region near a border with Tigray, Ethiopia November 9, 2020.

Members of Amhara region militias ride on their truck as they head to the mission to face the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), in Sanja, Amhara region near a border with Tigray, Ethiopia November 9, 2020.

Image: Reuters

Members of Amhara region militias ride on their truck as they head to the mission to face the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), in Sanja, Amhara region near a border with Tigray, Ethiopia November 9, 2020.

Some African and European nations pressed Ethiopia behind the scenes on Monday to allow mediation of a war in a northern region that has spilled into neighbouring Eritrea and rocked the wider Horn of Africa, diplomats said.

Hundreds have died, 25 000 refugees have fled to Sudan and there have been reports of atrocities since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered air strikes and a ground offensive on November 4 against Tigray’s rulers for defying his authority.

But Africa’s youngest leader, who won a Nobel Peace Prize last year, has so far resisted pressure for talks.

His government denied Uganda was shaping up as a mediator even though President Yoweri Museveni met Ethiopia’s foreign minister and appealed for negotiations.

“The claim of mediation in Uganda is NOT true,” Abiy’s special task force for Tigray tweeted.

The Tigray flare-up could jeopardise the recent opening up of Ethiopia’s economy, stir ethnic bloodshed elsewhere around Africa’s second most populous nation, and tarnish the reputation of Abiy, 44, who won his Nobel for peace with Eritrea.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which governs the region of 5 million people, has accused Eritrea of sending tanks and soldiers over the border against it.

Asmara denies that.

Tigray forces fired rockets into Eritrea at the weekend.

Ethiopia’s task force said federal troops had “liberated” the town of Alamata from the TPLF in south Tigray after saying last week they had seized the west.

With communications mainly down and media barred, Reuters could not independently verify assertions made by all sides.

‘INFLICTING SUFFERING’

There was no immediate comment from Tigray’s leaders about Alamata, near the border with Amhara state, about 120 km (75 miles) from Tigray’s capital Mekelle.

TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael urged the United Nations and African Union to condemn Ethiopia’s federal troops, accusing them of using high-tech weaponry including drones in attacks he said destroyed a dam and a sugar factory.

“Abiy Ahmed is waging this war on the people of Tigray and is responsible for the purposeful infliction of human suffering,” he said, warning that Ethiopia could become a failed state or disintegrate.

The government has denied targeting the dam or civilian locations but has not commented on the sugar factory.

Tigray leaders accuse Abiy, from the largest Oromo ethnic group, of persecuting them and purging them from government and security forces over the last two years. He says they rose up against him by attacking a military base.

Amnesty International has denounced the killing of scores and possibly hundreds of civilian labourers in a massacre that both sides have blamed on each other.

‘NEGOTIATE’, URGES UGANDA

Museveni tweeted that he met Demeke Mekonnen, Ethiopia’s foreign minister and deputy prime minister, in Uganda.

“A war in Ethiopia would give the entire continent a bad image. There should be negotiations and the conflict stopped, lest it leads to unnecessary loss of lives and cripples the economy,” he said in a tweet later deleted.

Demeke went on to Kenya afterwards.

“Everybody is encouraging talks, it’s very urgent,” said Mahboub Maalim, a Kenyan diplomat who heads the Nairobi-based regional think-tank Sahan. “Its not the time to apportion blame now. We should focus on a ceasefire.”

Neighbouring Djibouti backed Abiy as Ethiopia’s guarantor of national unity but offered to support any efforts for a peaceful resolution.

One diplomat said Ethiopia’s army was saying it had retaken 60% of Tigray and was planning a multi-pronged offensive on the regional capital Mekelle, aiming to reach it in three days.

Amid a push around Africa and Europe to get talks started, Nigeria’s former president Olusegun Obasanjo went to Addis Ababa.

“The door is closed but we have to keep being vocal. Just because he (Abiy) doesn’t want it (mediation), we are not going to keep quiet,” the diplomat told Reuters.

The Ethiopian National Defence Force has around 140,000 personnel and plenty of experience from fighting Somali militants, rebels in border regions, and Eritrea.

But many senior officers were Tigrayan, much of its most powerful weaponry is there and the TPLF has seized the powerful Northern Command’s headquarters in Mekelle.

The TPLF itself has a formidable history, spearheading the rebel march to Addis Ababa that ousted a Marxist dictatorship in 1991 and bearing the brunt of the 1998-2000 war with Eritrea that killed hundreds of thousands.

Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki – a long-time foe of the Tigrayan leaders – controls an army which the United States’ CIA puts at 200 000 personnel.

Share article
Tags: EthiopiaUgandaEritreaYoweri MuseveniTigray
Previous Post

Petrol set to drop by up to 36 cents per litre: AA

Next Post

Shepherd Bushiri saga

Related Posts

Africa's rhino population has been decimated over the decades to feed demand for rhino horn, which, despite being made of the same stuff as rhino hair and fingernails, is prized in East Asia as a supposed medicine and as jewellery.

Namibia rhino poaching surged 93% in 2022

30 January 2023, 9:05 PM
FILE PHOTO: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, U.S., September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo

IMF and Cameroon reach $74.6 mln staff-level agreement: Statement

30 January 2023, 6:57 PM
[File photo]: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (not pictured) at Al-Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt January 30, 2023.

Blinken meets Egypt’s Sisi in first leg of Mideast tour

30 January 2023, 10:55 AM
Pope Francis leads the Angelus prayer from his window at the Vatican.

Catholics from eastern Congo make cross-country journey to meet Pope

30 January 2023, 7:18 AM
Joseph Borrell

EU to continue giving technical support to troops deployed in northern Mozambique

29 January 2023, 6:13 PM
Pope Francis

Pope Francis to visit two African nations

29 January 2023, 4:38 PM
Next Post

Shepherd Bushiri saga

Most Viewed

  • 24hrs
  • Week
  • Month
  • Gas leak shut, isolated in Pretoria North
  • Bapedi kingdom commemorates Kgosi Mampuru II, still hoping to find his remains
  • King of Bacardi music Itumeleng Mosoeu “Vusi Ma R5” killed in Soshanguve
  • Limpopo man arrested after discovery of his wife’s body in water-filled pit toilet
  • EFF cuts ties with IFP in KwaZulu-Natal
  • Parts of the Northern Cape to be exempted from rolling blackouts
  • VIDEO | St Benedict College’s Matric learner gets 11 distinctions
  • Limpopo matriculant from child-headed household attains diploma pass
  • Female circumcision practice thriving in Eastern Cape
  • Premier denies claims that KZN government spent millions on Mampintsha’s funeral
  • King of Bacardi music Itumeleng Mosoeu “Vusi Ma R5” killed in Soshanguve
  • KwaZakhele mass shooting death toll rises to eight
  • KwaZakhele birthday party mass shooting leaves seven dead, four wounded
  • VIDEO: Judge Piet Koen recuses himself from Zuma Corruption Trial
  • Judge Koen recuses himself from Zuma corruption trial

LATEST

The Garden Route Food Pantry is encouraging those who are able to sponsor these meals for those who cannot afford them.
  • Lifestyle

Western Cape NGO develops new product ‘Food Sock’ to help end hunger


[File image]  Water being poured into a container.
  • South Africa

Water scarcity reported in parts of Johannesburg and Tshwane


Suspended Public Protector Busiswe Mkhwebane.
  • Politics

Zulu-Sokoni emphasises significance of shielding Public Protector’s Office from executive meddling


Africa's rhino population has been decimated over the decades to feed demand for rhino horn, which, despite being made of the same stuff as rhino hair and fingernails, is prized in East Asia as a supposed medicine and as jewellery.
  • Africa

Namibia rhino poaching surged 93% in 2022


The dollar index has weakened to 101.88 from a 20-year high of 114.78 on September 28 as investors price in the likelihood that the Fed is nearing the end of its tightening cycle.
  • Business

Dollar steady as central banks take central stage


Thusong Hospital Building in Itsoseng, outside Mahikeng.
  • South Africa

Reasons given for decommissioning Thusong Hospital do not hold water: Committee


Weather

  • About the SABC
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Advertise
  • Disclaimer
  • Site Map

SABC © 2022

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION

© 2022

Previous Petrol set to drop by up to 36 cents per litre: AA
Next Shepherd Bushiri saga