Ethiopia agrees to permanent ceasefire, as Obasanjo leads A.U. peace negotiation team

The Ethiopia warlords on the sides of both Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of the Ethiopian government and rebels of Tigray, after one week of negotiations under the watch of the African Union in South Africa, agreed to a ceasefire on Wednesday. The agreement is coming after two years of hostilities.

The Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in a joint statement after over one week of negotiations, declared: “We have agreed to permanently silence the guns and end the two years of conflict in northern Ethiopia.”

The African Union’s mediation team is being led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. Obasanjo, announcing the ceasefire in Pretoria, stated: “Today is the beginning of a new dawn for Ethiopia, for the Horn of Africa and indeed for Africa as a whole.

“The two parties in the Ethiopian conflict have formally agreed to the cessation of hostilities as well as the systematic, orderly, smooth and coordinated disarmament.

They also agreed on a “restoration of law and order, restoration of services, unhindered access to humanitarian supplies, protection of civilians… among other areas of agreement.”