A month after a truce was reached to put an end to the two-year fighting in the northern Tigray region, the rebels’ top commander reports that more than half of their fighters had left the frontlines in Ethiopia.
“We have accomplished 65% disengagement of our army,” Tadesse Wereda, commander-in-chief of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front said in a video posted on the TPLF’s Facebook page late on Saturday.
“Our army left the front lines and moved to the place prepared for them to camp,” he said. “Our forces withdrew on vehicles and on foot.”
Tigray saw war in November 2020. The federal forces and their allies, which included combatants from the bordering Amhara region of Ethiopia and fighters from neighboring Eritrea, were pitted against the Tigrayan forces.
The battle has caused millions of people to be uprooted, thousands to die of famine, and thousands to be slain.
However, on November 2 in South Africa, the two sides agreed to a permanent stop of hostilities in a diplomatic coup orchestrated by the African Union.
On November 12 in Kenya, a follow-up agreement was made on the disarmament of TPLF militants, guarantees for humanitarian access, and the entrance of the Ethiopian military into Mekele, the capital of Tigray.
Tadesse said the TPLF was still maintaining fighters in some locations “where there is a presence of anti-peace forces”. He did not name the locations.
“Our forces are still on the ground in those places due to the problems they [‘anti-peace forces’] are creating for our people, but we have even reduced numbers of our forces in those places,” Tadesse said.
The federal government announced on Thursday that a joint committee considering how to disarm the TPLF had started its work and would complete its plan in a few days.
The World Health Organisation, meanwhile, stated on Friday that despite the truce’s pledges for humanitarian access, it still does not have unrestricted access to Tigray.
Despite the peace agreement, residents and relief workers claim that Ethiopia’s supporters are looting villages, detaining and killing citizens, and evacuating thousands of people from a contentious region of Tigray.