Following the signing of a peace agreement earlier this month that provided for the disarmament of rebel combatants, a senior Ethiopian government official claims federal government troops now have control of most of the country’s northern Tigray province.
Rewdan Hussein, the prime minister of Ethiopia’s national security advisor, claimed on Friday that “70% of Tigray” is currently governed by the federal military.
He said that services “are being restored” and mentioned that 35 trucks of food and three trucks of medication had arrived in the city of Shire in northwest Tigray, which is home to a sizable number of people who have been displaced by the violence in Tigray.
Aid is flowing like never before, according to Redwan.
Redwan’s remarks, which came as representatives from the federal governments in Tigray gathered in Nairobi to discuss the implementation of a cease-fire agreement reached in South Africa on November 2, were not immediately confirmed by spokespeople for the International Committee for the Red Cross or the World Food Program.
According to the agreement, federal forces would assume command of the airports and borders of Tigray’s city.
The deal also stipulates that the roughly 200,000-strong rebel fighters in Tigray will disarm.
The Bureau for African Affairs of the U.S. Department of State stated on Thursday that Ethiopians in Tigray and the surrounding Amhara and Afar areas “need relief today.”
The bureau said on Twitter that Redwan Hussein had stated in Nairobi that by week’s end, humanitarian supplies will be delivered without interruption as agreed in Pretoria. It also stated that it was “[w]aiting immediately for steps to respect and implement the agreement.”
VOA
