Faith Nyasuguta
The Africa Union-brokered peace talks between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has commenced in South Africa.
This was revealed by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s mouthpiece Vincent Magwenya to reporters on Wednesday. He further revealed that the talks will end on October 30, 2022.
According to Magwenya the talks “have been convened to find a peaceful and sustainable solution to the devastating conflict“.
On Tuesday, the African Union (AU) issued a statement on the start of the talks.
“The Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat is pleased to announce the launch in South Africa of the first direct talks between the Federal Government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, as part of the ongoing AU-led process to support the parties find a political solution to the conflict in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia,” the statement said.
Mahamat thanked the government of South Africa for agreeing to host the peace talks.
“The Chairperson is further encouraged by the early demonstration of commitment to peace by the Parties and to seek a lasting political solution to the conflict in the supreme interest of Ethiopia,” the AU statement said.
A DELAYED START
The talks were set to start on Monday but were delayed for a day after the Ethiopian government delegation failed to arrive on time.
According to credible sources from Addis Ababa, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Demeke Mekonnen, who chairs the government delegation, did not travel to South Africa alongside his team on Monday night.
By Tuesday morning, it was unclear if he had travelled and arrived at the venue as the talks kicked off.
Magwenya confirmed that South Africa, as a host nation, will serve and extend all the required assistance for the ongoing peace talks.
“As a country committed to the Africa Union’s objectives of silencing the guns, South Africa is ready to provide assistance,” he said.
The spokesperson added that hosting such peace talks was in line with South Africa’s foreign policy objectives to secure a conflict-free continent.
The AU, alongside the UN and US, has for months been piling pressure on the Ethiopian federal government to sit down for talks with Tigrayan leaders in a bid to end the nearly two-year long bloody conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.
The US is said to have played a major role in the start of the first ever direct talks being held since the conflict between Tigray Defence Forces and the federal government broke out in November 2020.
US and UN diplomats are also attending the talks, diplomatic sources said.
It is still unclear if the two sides had agreed on an agenda prior to sending their delegations.
The six-day talks are being facilitated by AU Horn of Africa envoy and Nigeria’s former president Olusegun Obasanjo, supported by Kenya’s former president Uhuru Kenyatta and South Africa’s former vice president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said Magwenya.
The talks come as the Ethiopian federal government forces and their allies in the Eritrean army captured important towns in Tigray in offensives helped by heavy shelling which is forcing thousands of civilians to flee.
