Ethiopia accepts African Union’s invitation for peace talks with Tigray forces

Ethiopia’s federal government has accepted the African Union’s invitation to hold peace talks with Tigray forces in South Africa this weekend, which are aimed at ending the ongoing civil war and halting hostilities against the country’s Tigray region leadership.
African Union (AU) chief Moussa Faki Mahamat extended the invitation to the peace talks in a letter addressed to the leaders of the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray region. Redwan Hussein, the national security adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, confirmed Wednesday (5 October) that the federal government has accepted the invitation, thus re-affirming Addis Ababa’s preference for talks mediated by the AU. The government of Tigray also responded Wednesday that it was ready to participate in the talks.
Fighting in Ethiopia’s civil war renewed in late August, breaking a fragile truce that had been in place since March and halting much-needed aid deliveries to the Tigray region where more than 5 million people need humanitarian assistance. Mediation efforts by the AU’s envoy for the Horn of Africa will be supported by former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and the former deputy president of South Africa, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. The AU core mediation team will be supported by “observers” from the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, an eight-country trade bloc in region.