President Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia has called for negotiations over the nearly two-year civil war in the East African nation.
In his Monday speech to the Ethiopian parliament regarding the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, Zewde made the appeal.
“The government has stated clearly that it will always keep the door open for peace. We continue to urge for negotiations without any conditions, believing that any form of differences may be resolved through discussions.” says Zewde.
However, she added that the Ethiopian government would not put up with any TPLF provocations.
The long-awaited AU-mediated peace talks in South Africa were postponed without a new date being specified, which coincides with President Zewde’s remarks. It would have been the first meeting between the warring parties in the two-year conflict in Tigray since a truce was broken in late August.
“This year, we must put all of our efforts to bring the war that has tested our nation to end in peace.”
The number of people who have died from hunger and other diseases since the war began in November 2020 is unknown, but some investigations and estimates have suggested that at least 500,000 people have perished as a result of it. This conclusion was reached by a research team led by Jan Nyssen of Ghent University in Belgium.
In November 2020, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a political organisation that had long dominated the region’s north, clashed with Ethiopia’s central government forces.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s Tigray rebels say Eritrea has extended its offensive into their region, as diplomats scramble to convene peace talks to resolve the almost two-year-long conflict.
In a statement Monday, the Tigray forces said that Eritrea’s military has launched an “extensive offensive” in the direction of Rama, Zalambessa and Tserona towns in northeastern Tigray. They called on Tigray’s population to “further intensify their campaign of self-defense.”