Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, at the first briefing on peace talks in Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital, also said the Ethiopian government and Tigray authorities had agreed to an “orderly, smooth and coordinated disarmament”. Ethiopian government officials and a team sent by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a political organization that has ruled the northern region for decades, spent nearly 10 days together in South Africa in the most serious effort yet to find a negotiated solution to the war. An earlier truce broke down in August and violence has intensified as both sides sought success on the battlefield to strengthen their negotiating position. Other key points in the new deal included the restoration of law and order, Obasanjo said, as well as the restoration of services and unhindered access to humanitarian supplies. The removal of all obstacles to the transport of food and medicine to Tigray will be seen as a major breakthrough by many observers. Tigray’s 6 million residents have been under siege since the start of the war, with limited humanitarian aid. The UN said this month that the conflict was taking an “absolutely staggering” toll on civilians, while Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, described the conflict’s “devastating civilian impact on an already dire humanitarian situation”. Redwan Hussein, the Ethiopian government’s chief negotiator, said: “It is now the responsibility of all of us to uphold this agreement.” His Tigrayan counterpart, Getachew Reda, agreed and noted that “painful concessions” had been made. The war has seen a series of advances and retreats on both sides, bloody battles, drone attacks, alleged ethnic cleansing and a host of atrocities committed by all combatants. “The level of devastation is enormous,” Redwan said. A critical question is how soon aid can return to Tigray, whose communications and transport links have been largely disrupted since the conflict began. Doctors have described running out of essential medicines such as vaccines, insulin and therapeutic food, while people are dying of preventable diseases and starvation. UN human rights investigators said the Ethiopian government is using “civilian starvation” as a weapon of war. “We are going back to 18th century surgery,” a surgeon at the district’s main hospital, Fasika Amdeslasie, told health experts in an online event on Wednesday. “It’s like an open-air prison.” The actual death toll in the conflict is unknown, but may be approaching levels that would make the conflict one of the deadliest anywhere in the world. With no access for independent journalists and a limited presence of international humanitarian organizations, reliable data is scarce. Some estimate that hundreds of thousands may have died as a result of the fighting and blockade. Others put the number in the tens of thousands, including fighters. Subscribe to Global Dispatch Get a different view of the world with a collection of the best news, features and images, curated by our global development team Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The Ethiopian government accuses the TPLF, which played a leading role in the country’s ruling coalition until 2018, of trying to restore Tigrayan rule across the country. Tigrayan leaders accuse Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of a repressive government and discrimination. Both deny each other’s accusations. Eritrea, which has fought on the side of neighboring Ethiopia, has not taken part in the peace talks, an omission that analysts say could seriously undermine prospects for a definitive end to hostilities. The authoritarian regime in power in Eritrea has long considered the Tigray authorities a threat and has yet to officially react to the deal. Eritrean forces have been accused of some of the worst abuses of the conflict, including gang-rapes, and witnesses have described killings and looting by Eritrean forces even during peace talks. Forces from Ethiopia’s neighboring Amhara region also fought Tigray forces and are not represented in the peace talks either. “The Amharas cannot be expected to comply with any outcome of a negotiation process from which they believe they are excluded,” said Tewodrose Tirfe, president of the Amhara Association of America. The Associated Press contributed to this report
