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Ethiopia is under African and European pressure to agree to negotiations with the leaders of the Tigray region, according to reports.
The Ethiopian government denied any mediation in Uganda over the escalating conflict in Tigray.
Media speculation had indicated the possibility of starting talks in Uganda about the military conflict in the Ethiopia region.
The Ethiopian Government Working Group on the Tigray Conflict said: “The mediation claim in Uganda is false.”
Reuters quoted diplomatic sources on Monday as saying that several African and European governments were pressuring Ethiopia behind the scenes to start negotiations with local rulers in the Tigray region to end a nearly two-week conflict.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said in a tweet on Twitter that he had met with the Ethiopian Foreign Minister and urged him to negotiate.
Museveni later deleted the tweet, in which he said that there should be negotiations on the conflict in northern Ethiopia “to avoid any unnecessary loss of life and disruption of the economy.”
There is no explanation why the tweet was deleted.
The tweet was published after the Ugandan president met with Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Demiki Mekonnen in Uganda.
But the Ethiopian federal government rejected requests for negotiations with the TPLF. It describes its mission in Tigray as a “law enforcement operation.”
Reuters quoted diplomatic sources on Monday as saying that several African and European governments were pressuring Ethiopia behind the scenes to start negotiations with local rulers in the Tigray region to end a nearly two-week conflict.
Hundreds of people have died in the crisis so far, both parties and security sources said. But Ethiopia denied accusations by Tigray leaders of targeting civilian sites with their airstrikes.
The clashes have caused thousands of people to flee the country to neighboring Sudan.
Egyptian-Sudanese maneuvers
The Egyptian and Sudanese forces had launched a joint air maneuver called “Nile Eagles 1” at the Marwa air base in northern Sudan.
The joint exercises will continue until November 26.
This is the first military exercise of its kind between the two countries since the era of former Sudanese President Jaafar Nimeiri in the 1970s.
A spokesman for the Egyptian military said in an official statement that the joint air exercises will carry out a number of tasks, including planning and managing joint air battles, and offensive and defensive air operations for multi-role combat aircraft from the two countries, and Airborne forces will conduct combat search and rescue exercises.
Leaders of the Sudanese and Egyptian armies met in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on October 31 and agreed to strengthen joint military cooperation.
These exercises come days after the failure of the talks between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia on the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
It also coincides with the escalation of the military conflict in the Ethiopian region of Tigray between the Ethiopian army and fighters in the region.
At the beginning of last month, Ethiopia banned flights in its airspace over the Renaissance Dam for safety reasons.
This controversial dam, which is expected to be the largest in Africa, has somewhat strained Ethiopia’s relations with Egypt and Sudan.