The day after hostilities between the federal army of Ethiopia and the Tigray rebels resumed in the country’s north, where the situation is still tumultuous, the international community expressed alarm.
For the time being, neither the Ethiopian government nor the Tigray rebel authorities, who each claim responsibility for starting the latest skirmishes, have provided any information on whether or not the combat would continue.
The only thing rebel leaders in Tigray declared in a statement on Wednesday was that government forces had “failed” to “break (their) lines of defense.
Fighting did not seem to expand after it started on Wednesday in parts of the Amhara and Afar regions near Tigray’s southeast corner.
However, the resurgence of violence has the international community concerned that the war may flare up again on a big scale and that the tenuous expectations for discussions generated in June will be shattered.
According to the United Nations, the 21-month conflict has resulted in thousands of deaths, more than two million displaced persons, and hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians who are on the verge of hunger.
The European Union’s head of diplomacy, Josep Borrell, stated that “the intelligence on a renewal of the fighting in northern Ethiopia darkens the prospects for peace” and urged “all parties to defuse the situation before it degenerates again into a full-fledged war.”
Asserting that the truce agreed at the end of March “which has decreased bloodshed and saved lives,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged all sides to “put a definitive end to the conflict.”
In a meeting with diplomats on Thursday, Ethiopia’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Demeke Mekonnen, emphasized that “the government is ready to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation.”
He accused the rebels of continuing to “use humanitarian supplies meant to support civilians for military purposes, while failing to recognize the government’s peace measures,” adding that the government was also “determined to use peaceful means to end the conflict and to work with humanitarian organizations to alleviate unnecessary suffering.”
The Ethiopian government and the Tigrayan rebels have regularly proclaimed their desire to engage in peace negotiations since the end of June, but they are still at odds over the specifics. Furthermore, they have recently accused one another of planning for war.
The federal administration desires urgent, no-holds-barred negotiations with the African Union (AU). The rebels are refusing Olusegun Obasanjo’s offer of mediation and calling for the restoration of Tigray’s banking, telecommunications, and energy facilities.
Debretsion Gebremichael, the head of the Tigray rebel authorities, acknowledged having “two rounds of direct discussions” with military and civilian Ethiopian government officials in a letter that was published on Wednesday. The Tigrayan rebels had consistently vehemently denied having such direct contacts.
He charged that the Ethiopian government had broken its promises on several instances.
“The other side declares war as one side outlines a plan for peace. The tiger rebels are “actively seeking to end it, while the government is studying all ways to consolidate the truce, “said the prime minister’s negotiating preparation committee, Abiy Ahmed.
Due to the violence, Tigray had been reduced to near starvation, but the truce negotiated at the end of March had allowed for a gradual return of humanitarian relief distribution by road.
In November 2020, after months of opposition to his rule, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed dispatched the army into Tigray to remove the regional government, claiming them of targeting military positions.
The Tigrayan rebels, who had first retreated, launched a counteroffensive in mid-2021, during which they invaded Amhara and Afar, and eventually took control of the majority of the area.
