By Faith Nyasuguta
The U.S president Joe Biden has sent a special envoy to Ethiopia amid global alarm on the appreciating Tigray war.
So far, the war has seen the death of thousands and also created a humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa.
Announcing the tour by ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian government to agree to negotiations after the nine-month war.
“Months of war have brought immense suffering and division to a great nation that won’t be healed through more fighting,” he said via Twitter.
Since November 2020, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government troops and the TPLF troops that have always controlled Tigray have been at war.
Thousands have died, rape has been used as a war weapon and ethnic killings have increased triggering a mega refugee and humanitarian crisis.
Last month, the United Nations cautioned that in the next one year, over 100,000 Tigrayan children will suffer life-threatening malnutrition.
Just this week, the Tigrayan forces indicated they were in talks to launch a military alliance with rebels from Oromiya, Ethiopia’s most populous locality.
This has pressured the Ethiopian government in Addis Ababa.
Quoted by Reuters, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) leader said the group had decided to join hands with TPLF as they now have a common cause.
“I hope we are going to squeeze this government, and if possible – and I know it’s possible – we are going to overthrow this regime and stop this crisis,” OLA leader Kumsa Diriba said.
Ethiopia has dubbed both OLA and TPLF terrorist groups.
