US, African Union envoys in Ethiopia to press for cease-fire

By Addis Getachew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AA) - US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman met Thursday with Ethiopia’s foreign minister in the capital of Addis Ababa.

Feltman’s meeting with Demeke Mekonnen came amid mounting international pressure on the government and rebels to declare an unconditional cease-fire and sit for dialogue.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ambassador Dina Mufti said the focus of the discussion with Feltman was the yearlong armed conflict between Ethiopian forces and fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Demeke, who is also the deputy prime minister, told Feltman that the government already approved humanitarian flights to the UNESCO heritage town of Lalibella in Amhara regional state still in control of the rebels and the commercially important town of Kombolcha.

No further details from the meeting were disclosed.

Meanwhile, the African Union’s Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, is also in Addis Ababa to continue mediation efforts.

Ethiopia neither rejects nor gives a green light to Obasanjo’s mediation but said “we respect the efforts of the African Union to help resolve the problem in Ethiopia.”

But US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken after meeting Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday reiterated a call for the warring parties to end hostilities.

“Our special envoy Jeffrey Feltman is working with high representative Obasanjo to press the parties to end hostilities immediately and without preconditions, to stop human rights abuses and violations, to provide humanitarian access for the millions in northern Ethiopia who are in dire need of life-saving supplies,” he said.

Ethiopia has been fighting TPLF forces since Nov 4, 2020, when the government declared an operation targeting top-brass leaders of the rebel group and their military commanders.

That move came after the TPLF forces attacked the northern command of the Ethiopian Defense Forces stationed across Tigray.

A June 29 unilateral cease-fire declared by the government did not succeed in bringing desired results as the rebels used the opportunity to expand south into the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara.

More than two million people have been displaced because of the conflict, which the UN warned may cause a humanitarian catastrophe.​​​​​​​