Le Monde
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the insurgents in the north of the country are expected to meet around the same table in Tanzania from the end of June.
After the truce, peace? As humanitarian aid trucks have been pouring into Ethiopia’s rebel northern province since March, Abiy Ahmed’s government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) insurgents are now reportedly considering negotiations. According to several African and Western diplomats, discussions could begin as early as the end of June in Tanzania, probably in the city of Arusha, known for having already hosted the Rwandan peace process in 1993.
At the origin of this rapprochement, Olusegun Obasanjo, the special envoy for the Horn of Africa of the African Union (AU), has multiplied in recent months the round trips between Addis Ababa and Makalé, the provincial capital. of Tigray. Backed behind the scenes by Western chancelleries, the 86-year-old former Nigerian president has been pleading since September 2021 for a permanent and complete ceasefire between the Ethiopian federal authorities and the rebels. The war, launched in November 2020, has already left tens of thousands dead, millions displaced, and plunged northern Ethiopia into a serious humanitarian crisis.