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Nairobi (Kenya), Nov. 3 (AP) Officials nearing the end of peace talks aimed at ending Ethiopia’s deadly two-year war confirmed the full text of the agreement on Thursday, but a key question remained: What caused Tigray Regional leaders agree to terms that include quick disarmament and full federal control?
A day after the warring sides signed a “permanent cessation of hostilities” in a war believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of people, none of the negotiators have said how they got there.
The full agreement has not been made public, but officials confirmed that a copy obtained by The Associated Press is the final document. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
At the signing ceremony on Wednesday, Tigray’s chief negotiator said it contained “painful concessions.”
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One of the priorities of the agreement is to quickly disarm Tigray’s forces with heavy weapons and take their “light weapons” within 30 days. Senior commanders from both sides will meet within five days.
The agreement says Ethiopian security forces will take full control of “all federal facilities, installations and major infrastructure in the Tigray area…” and establish an interim regional administration after dialogue between the two sides. The terrorist name of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front Party will be removed.
If implemented, the deal should mark the end of a devastating conflict in Africa’s second most populous country. Under the blockade of the Tigray region of more than 5 million people, millions have been displaced and many are on the verge of famine. All parties have documented abuse.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed claimed that his government had received everything asked for in the peace talks.
“Ethiopia’s peace offer has been 100 percent accepted in the South African negotiations,” Abiy said in a speech that the government was ready to “open up” to allow peace to prevail. He added that the issue of the disputed area is seen as one of the most difficult and can only be resolved through land laws and negotiations.
Neither the Ethiopian government nor Tigray negotiators responded to questions.
As part of the full agreement, the parties agreed not to make any unilateral statements that would undermine the agreement. The agreement also calls for an immediate “cessation of all forms of hostile propaganda, speech and hate speech”.
Mike Hammer, the U.S. special envoy who helped with the peace talks, described the conflict as “highly toxic”.
“The human cost of this conflict is devastating. I urge all Ethiopians to seize this opportunity for peace,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters on Thursday, one of many messages of cautious hope from observers.
Huge challenges lie ahead. The opaque and authoritarian government of neighboring Eritrea, which fights alongside Ethiopian troops, did not comment, and it was unclear whether Eritrean troops had begun to withdraw.
The agreement said Ethiopian troops would be deployed along the border “to ensure that there will be no provocation or intrusion from both sides of the border”.
Building trust is crucial, said Mustafa Yusuf Ali, an analyst at the Horn Institute for International Strategy. The agreement “needs to be coordinated, it needs to be systematized, and most importantly, it needs to be sequenced so that the Tigrays don’t let their equipment go after they hand over all their weapons, and then suddenly they’re attacked by the center,” he said.
The agreement sets a deadline for disarmament but nothing else, although it said the Ethiopian government would “expeditiously provide humanitarian assistance” and “expedite and coordinate the restoration of essential services in the Tigray region within an agreed time frame”.
The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross say they have yet to resume humanitarian deliveries to Tigray, where communications, transport and banking links have been largely cut off since the fighting began. Some essential medicines have run out.
“It is not surprising that it may take a little time to get the message across to the competent authorities in the field. We are in touch with them and trying to get them unblocked as soon as possible,” U.N. Secretary-General spokesman Stephen Dujarric told reporters.
A humanitarian worker in Shire, Tigray’s second-largest town, said no gunfire had been heard in the past few days, but people and vehicles were still unable to move freely. Another humanitarian worker said the town of Axum was also quiet. Both requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Residents of Merkel, the capital of the Tigray region, nervously await the next move.
When asked about the peace deal, resident Gidey Tsadik replied: “It’s good. Everyone is happy. However, we don’t know when we will actually have peace.”
Tedros Hiwot said residents have yet to hear when essential services will resume. “We need it to happen quickly,” he said.
Tigray people outside the area said they still had no way of reaching their families by phone. “I hope this will be an opportunity to reconnect with my family,” said Andom Ghebreyesus, who lives in Kenya. “I miss them and I don’t know if they are still alive.”
At a memorial service for soldiers killed in the conflict in the capital Addis Ababa, Defence Minister Abraham Belle spoke of the “very complex and difficult reconstruction work before us”. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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