Ethiopia says Tigray ceasefire is underway due to fear of famine Reuters

Authors: Dawit Endeshaw and Maggie Fick

Addis Ababa (Reuters)-The Ethiopian government on Thursday urged the insurgents in Tigray to join a unilateral ceasefire in their conflict as aid agencies are trying to reach hundreds of thousands of people facing famine.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the former ruler of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, said on Monday that after nearly eight months of fighting, they have regained control of the regional capital Merkel.

The government announced a unilateral ceasefire, but TPLF considered it a joke and the hostilities continued on Thursday.

The International Rescue Committee stated that a bridge on the Tekeze River near the northern town of Shire has been destroyed, so providing assistance to war-torn areas will be “more severely hindered than before.”

The Shire and several other towns in Tigray are now under the control of Tigray’s army.

Regarding the ceasefire, Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Dina Mufti said: “In order for the ceasefire to be fully implemented, as they said, two people are required to dance tango, so the other side needs to react.”

“So, for example, how and how the aid will come in, and what will happen to the flight. We will see as we proceed. So far, we have no ready answers. This is a work in progress.”

A TPLF spokesperson told Reuters on Wednesday that the Ethiopian government’s shutdown of services in the region is an ongoing act of war.

As electricity, telephone and Internet lines in the area were cut off, the ability of aid agencies to provide assistance to people in desperate need of food and other services was severely restricted.

Alyona Synenko, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said that Merkel’s hospital was running on generators due to a power outage.

The United Nations stated in early June that at least 350,000 people in Tigray are facing famine. The United States Agency for International Development estimated this number at 900,000 last week.

A spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said: “There is an urgent need to increase staff and supplies to Tigray, restore electricity and telecommunications, and ensure that the entire region has cash and fuel to ensure the continuity of humanitarian operations,” Hayat · Abu Salah said.

Satellite equipment destroyed

Abu Salah said that in Merkel, the streets were calm on Thursday morning, with shops and markets open for business.

She said that after Ethiopian soldiers destroyed the equipment in the UNICEF office in the city, electricity and telecommunications were still interrupted, and the UN office could only rely on a limited number of remaining satellites.

She said that on Wednesday, the United Nations was able to assess several towns that are now back under the control of TPLF and mentioned that the road between Aksum and Adwa in the northern center of Tigray was unimpeded.

“We are preparing to resume aid,” said Abu Salah, who said that 5.2 million people in Tigray need humanitarian assistance.

“We are here, we stay, and we will deliver.”

Prime Minister Abi Ahmed admitted that after months of fighting, government forces have left Merkler. He said this is because the city is no longer “the center of conflict.”

He downplayed the withdrawal, saying that the Ethiopian army had left Meckler to focus on more important security threats, such as tensions with neighboring Sudan and Egypt’s dam being built on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia.

But a TPLF spokesperson called Abiy’s comments a “lie”, saying that the government forces had failed and were forced to leave Mekelle.

Abiy is facing international pressure to end the conflict, which is constantly interrupted by reports of gang rapes and mass killings of civilians. At least 12 rescuers were killed.

In a speech to Parliament in March, Abi admitted that atrocities including rape had occurred and promised that any member of the Ethiopian army who committed crimes against civilians would be held accountable.

A Western diplomat working in the Horn of Africa said that the government continues to shut down electricity and other services in the region, making deaths from famine inevitable.

The Abi government has been fighting TPLF since the end of last year, when it accused the then Tigray ruling party of attacking military bases in the region.