Ethiopia, Rebels Agree to New Cease-Fire After Two Years of War

S'thembile Cele
·3 min read
1

(Bloomberg) -- Ethiopia’s government and leaders of the dissident Tigray region agreed to renew a cease-fire in a civil war that has claimed thousands of lives, raising hopes that an end to the two-year conflict may be in sight. The nation’s eurobonds rallied.

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Representatives of the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front signed the accord in the South African capital, Pretoria, where peace talks began on Oct. 25.

“The two parties in the Ethiopian conflict have formally agreed to the cessation of hostilities,” former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union’s chief representative for the Horn of Africa region, said at a briefing Thursday. “This moment is not the end of this process, but the beginning of it. Implementation of the peace agreement signed today is critical to the success of the process.”

The agreement to cease hostilities is the second this year. A previous accord agreed in March lasted five months before fighting resumed, with both sides accusing each other of staging fresh attacks. The conflict forced investors to flee and hit an economy that was expanding at the fastest pace in Africa until 2019. The war also stymied Ethiopia’s move to improve relations with international financiers, as it awaits an International Monetary Fund loan amid efforts to restructure its debt.

The yield on Ethiopia’s $1 billion of eurobonds due in 2024 dropped more than 400 basis points in the aftermath of the announcement. It closed at 44.07% on Wednesday, compared with 45.80% a day earlier.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the “momentous step” toward bringing an end to hostilities.

“We commend the parties for taking this initial step to agree to end the fighting and continue dialogue to resolve outstanding issues to consolidate peace and bring an end to almost two years of conflict,” he said in a statement.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed hailed the successful conclusion of the peace talks as “monumental” and stressed the government’s commitment to working toward implementing the agreement, according to a statement on Twitter.

Human-Rights Violations

The war began in November 2020 after an attack on a federal army base by forces loyal to the TPLF, which was the nation’s pre-eminent power broker for decades before being sidelined by Abiy after he came to power in 2018. The conflict has drawn in neighboring Eritrea, which supports Abiy, and spilled over into Sudan, where thousands of civilians have taken refuge.

Amnesty International accused all of those involved in the conflict of human-rights violations. Millions of people have been forced to flee their homes and been denied humanitarian aid, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

“All parties have been responsible for serious violations, encompassing war crimes and crimes against humanity” during the conflict, it said. Those crimes include extra-judicial executions and summary killings of thousands of people and sexual violence against women and girls, it said.

In terms of the accord signed on Wednesday, both sides agreed to:

  • A detailed program of disarmament, demobilization and the reintegration of TPLF combatants into the national defense force.

  • Collaboration with humanitarian agencies to expedite aid to those in need of assistance.

  • The restoration of public services and the rebuilding of infrastructure in all communities affected by conflict.

“We humbly call on the leaders of both sides to continue to work towards maintaining this peace by working toward implementing the agreement in full,” Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s foreign minister, said at the signing ceremony.

(Updates with comment by US secretary of state from sixth paragraph.)

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