AFRICAN UNION CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE IN ETHIOPIA - TIGRAY CONFLICT
The chair of the African Union on Sunday called for an immediate ceasefire in Ethiopia's Tigray region and urged parties in the two-year-old conflict to agree to direct peace talks. The Ethiopian government and its allies have been fighting Tigray forces on and off since late 2020. The violence has killed thousands of civilians and uprooted millions, with hundreds of thousands now facing possible famine. Meanwhile,The town of Shire, in northwestern Tigray, has been bombed for several days in a joint offensive by Ethiopian and Eritrean troops against Tigrayan rebels that have resulted in several civilian casualties.
A member of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an NGO providing disaster relief, was killed and another wounded in one of these attacks on Friday, which left two other civilians dead, according to the IRC. After UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern about the escalating violence, AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat called for "an immediate and unconditional cease-fire." "The chairperson urged the parties to reiterate their commitment to dialogue in accordance with their agreement for direct talks to be convened in South Africa," he added in a statement.
In response, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) rebels said they were "ready to respect" such a pause in the fighting. "We are ready to respect an immediate cessation of hostilities. We also call on the international community to force the Eritrean army to withdraw from Tigray, to take steps towards an immediate cessation of hostilities and to put pressure on the Ethiopian government to come to the negotiating table," said the TPLF. Shortly before, the U.S. Department of State's Africa desk had said on Twitter that "the priority" was to "achieve an immediate cessation of hostilities.
