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African envoys went to Ethiopia to ask for peace on Wednesday, hours before an ultimatum expired for Tigrayan forces to surrender or face an assault on the northern region’s capital.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government set a 72-hour ultimatum on Sunday for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to lay down its arms or face an assault on Mekelle, the capital of the mountainous region of 500,000 people.
Three African Union (AU) envoys, former presidents Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa, were due to arrive in the Ethiopian capital on Wednesday for meetings, diplomatic sources said.
AU President and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that the envoys aim to create dialogue and end the struggle that has cost many lives and great displacement of people.
Abiy, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for ending a two-decade-long confrontation with Eritrea, has said he will receive them but will not speak to TPLF chiefs until they are defeated or surrendered.
Ethiopian refugees fleeing the ongoing fighting in the Tigray region, queuing for water, at Fashaga camp, on the Sudan-Ethiopia border, in the state of Kassala, Sudan, on November 24, 2020. / Reuters
Ethiopian refugees fleeing the ongoing fighting in the Tigray region, queuing for water, at Fashaga camp, on the Sudan-Ethiopia border, in the state of Kassala, Sudan, on November 24, 2020. / Reuters
International organizations, including the United Nations, expressed concern that the ongoing conflicts put more civilians at risk.
Thousands of people are already believed to have died and there has been widespread destruction from aerial bombardment and ground fighting since the war began on November 4. Some 42,000 refugees have fled across the border with Sudan.
So far, both sides have described victories on the battlefield in which they have killed large numbers of enemy combatants.
The conflict pits Ethiopia’s central government against the TPLF, which ruled the country for decades until Abiy took power two years ago. Ethiopia is a federation of 10 regions administered by separate ethnic groups. The Tigrayans make up about five percent of the population, but they had enormous influence as the most powerful force in a multi-ethnic ruling coalition between 1991 and 2018.
Ethiopia mobilized for war in the northern region of Tigray. / AFP
Ethiopia mobilized for war in the northern region of Tigray. / AFP
Abiy: Tigray fighting an internal police
The presumed president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, appointed as national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, urged dialogue. “I am deeply concerned about the risk of violence against civilians, including possible war crimes, in the fighting around Mekelle in Ethiopia,” he tweeted.
Abiy repeated his position Wednesday that the Tigray fight was an internal law enforcement matter.
“Because the Ethiopian government has painted this as a domestic criminal situation, they are avoiding the kind of diplomacy and international mediation efforts that are typically part of themselves to offer to regional states,” said Grant Harris, former senior director of African affairs in the National Security Council of the US administration of Barack Obama.
Read more: Ethiopian leader rejects international ‘interference’ in war
(With contributions from agencies)
