Ethiopia govt team arrives in rebel-held Tigray to oversee peace deal implementation

A high-level delegation from the Ethiopian federal government was on its way this Monday (December 26) to the capital of the rebel-held northern region of Tigray to oversee the implementation of last month’s peace deal designed to end over two years of conflict.

In November, the Ethiopian federal government and Tigrayan forces signed the peace agreement to permanently cease hostilities after two years of bloodshed that saw tens of thousands killed and millions displaced. Both sides have agreed to create a joint monitoring and compliance mechanism to ensure the truce was being honored and any violations addressed. A follow-up agreement on the disarmament of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters was signed later that month in Kenya.

All sides to the conflict have been accused of possible war crimes by United Nations investigators, and the United States has warned ethnic cleansing may have occurred in western Tigray.

This is the first high-level federal delegation that has travelled to Tigray in two years, the government has said, adding that “this gesture is an attestation to the peace agreement getting on the right track and progressing.” Led by House of Representatives speaker Tagesse Chafo, “the delegation is the first of its stature as a high-level federal government body heading to Mekele in two years,” the government statement said. The aim of the mission is to supervise the application of the peace deal that includes the disarmament of rebel forces, the re-establishment of federal authority in Tigray and the reopening of access to the region.