Officials said that ongoing efforts are being made to guarantee that all concerns in Tigray are resolved in accordance with the peace agreement struck in November.
Abraham Belay, Ethiopia’s minister of defence, has announced plans for a referendum on a guarantee that the territorial issues between the Tigray and Amhara regions will be resolved in accordance with constitutional law and a peace agreement struck in November.
Belay said in a message posted on Facebook on Tuesday that the minister brought up the Pretoria Agreement as well as the complaints of locals and the over 2.5 million people who had been displaced by the two-year civil war in Tigray.
“We are making a sincere effort to address the problems that have gone unaddressed and are significantly harming our people. Additionally, a solid foundation for choosing and overseeing their own governors would be provided for the citizens of these regions, he added.
The Pretoria Agreement, a peace accord brokered by the African Union and signed in the South African capital, brought an end to the protracted war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray area in November. The conflict had been raging since 2020.
The Tigray War was designated as the deadliest conflict in the world in 2022 by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), with an estimated death toll of well over 100,000.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 2.6 million people have been internally displaced as a result of the violence, which has exacerbated famine-like circumstances in the area.
On Tuesday, the defence minister of the nation in East Africa stated: “Action is being taken to ensure the safety and peace of the displaced people.”
“The people will soon return to their homes and establish their own administration in a manner that ensures their constitutional rights,” he continued.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both charged local government officials and Amhara regional security forces of carrying out crimes of ethnic cleansing against Tigrayans in the region’s disputed Western Tigray Zone.
State of emergency in Amhara is approved by the Ethiopian parliamentREAD
Tens of thousands of Tigrayans were reportedly driven from their homes in 2021 by Amhara militiamen who had fought alongside the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) against Tigrayan troops throughout the conflict.
Asserting that “the ENDF will ensure there are no other armed forces except the federal security forces,” Belay claimed the government will overthrow governments “in those areas where an illegal administration was created.”
The government’s plan to include regional troops into the federal police or military sparked fierce fighting earlier this month between the ENDF and the local Amhara’s Fano militia.
In reaction to the violence that has claimed numerous civilian lives in Bahir Dar, Gondar, the historic town of Lalibela, and other cities, authorities last week proclaimed a six-month state of emergency.
