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When asked by AFP for comment, Ethiopia’s prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok’s announcement of an “emergency” meeting of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
Hamdok traveled to Addis Ababa on Sunday to discuss the Tigray conflict with his counterpart, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the first foreign leader to visit the Ethiopian capital since fighting broke out in the region on November 4, creating a humanitarian crisis.
“The visit led to fruitful negotiations and an emergency meeting of IGAD was agreed to be held,” Hamdok’s office said.
IGAD was founded in 1996 and brings together the East African nations: Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda.
Abiy, the winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has withstood weeks of international pressure, including from the United States, the United Nations and the African Union to agree to mediation.
Thousands of people have died since the beginning of the conflict in Tigray, according to the International Crisis Group, and just over 50,000 people have fled to neighboring Sudan since Abiy ordered troops in the region to confront his dissident ruling party.
A Sudanese government official told AFP that the meeting between Hamdok and Abiy had been “fruitful, especially in the emergency IGAD meeting” and in the reactivation of a committee to work on the delimitation of their shared border.
Abiy said Hamdok expressed his support during face-to-face talks for the offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and its campaign to disarm and apprehend its leaders.
“The Sudanese side reiterated its solidarity with the Ethiopian government in the law enforcement operations it has been conducting,” said a statement from Abiy’s office.
Hamdok also recalled the support Abiy had previously provided to Sudan, he added.
Refugee crisis
The Sudanese prime minister had urged Abiy to enter into negotiations with the TPLF when fighting broke out six weeks ago, and encouraged African mediation to resolve the conflict as it threatened to attract the wider region.
On November 28, he declared the end of the conflict, saying that the army had captured the regional capital, Mekele. Abiy said on Twitter on Sunday that he went to Mekele for the first time since federal forces took control of the city.
Abiy has dismissed reports of ongoing clashes as “sporadic shootings” that do not indicate a major combat. Over the weekend, AFP journalists saw trucks of soldiers heading towards Tigray, and ambulances remain a common sight in the southern Tigray and northern Amhara regions.
Tens of thousands of refugees have crossed the border west into one of the poorest regions in Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world.
They have arrived in a country in the midst of a fragile political transition since the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir last year, along with an economic crisis that has been particularly harsh in the eastern states where the Tigray refugees arrived.
About 170 refugees crossed into Sudan from Tigray on Saturday, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, compared with 1,100 on December 3.
Back to business
State media reported that the interim administration appointed to oversee Tigray was urging officials and companies to return to work on Monday.
The head of the administration, Mulu Nega, was also quoted on Saturday by the Ethiopian state news agency as saying that anyone in Tigray in possession of a weapon, legal or illegal, should hand it over to the security forces by Tuesday.
In Mehoni, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Mekele, residents were irritated by the idea of being ruled by an outsider chosen by Addis Ababa.
“We don’t want any other government. We want to be governed by the TPLF,” Asene Hailu, 30, told AFP.
Abiy’s announcement of military action in Tigray marked a dramatic escalation of tensions between the prime minister and the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before anti-government protests brought Abiy to power in 2018.
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