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The troop withdrawal was agreed at a meeting last week.
© APA (AFP)
According to the Ethiopian government, Eritrean troops in the Ethiopian conflict region of Tigray have begun their internationally requested withdrawal. Eritrean soldiers have started to leave the area, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said late Saturday.
Abiy announced the withdrawal last week. Only three days earlier he had admitted the presence of Eritrean troops, after he and the Eritrean government had long denied it. But the pressure on Abiy had increased after more and more reports emerged of massacres and sexual violence by Eritrean soldiers.
In early November, Ethiopian troops launched an offensive against the TPLF Popular Liberation Front, which ruled Tigray. After a few weeks, Abiy declared the TPLF defeated. But according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) on Friday, fighting in the central and southern region was still continuing.
The group of the seven major industrialized countries (G7) joined the conflict on Friday. In a joint statement with the EU foreign relations officer, Josep Borrell, he called for the swift withdrawal of the Eritrean armed forces from Tigray. At the same time, the G7 and the EU condemned “the killing of civilians, sexual and gender-based violence, arbitrary bombings and the displacement of Tigray residents and Eritrean refugees.”
The relationship between neighboring East African states, Ethiopia and Eritrea, was marked by great hostility for years after a war that broke out in 1998. Abiy received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his surprising initiative to find a compromise with Eritrea. However, hostility between Eritrea and the TPLF persisted in the Tigray border region.
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