UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres has commended Nigeria’s former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, for facilitating the signing of a peace deal between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
The parties in the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray agreed Wednesday on a “permanent cessation of hostilities’’ just more than a week after formal peace talks began in South Africa.
Obasanjo, the African Union Mediator, was instrumental in the truce.
In the first briefing on the peace talks, the former president said Ethiopia’s government and Tigrayan authorities had agreed on an “orderly, smooth, and coordinated disarmament.”
He pointed out that both sides also agreed on the “restoration of law and order, restoration of services and unhindered access to humanitarian supplies.”
And in a statement released by his spokesperson, Guterres said the agreement signed in South Africa represented “a critical first step” towards ending the brutal two-year war.
The UN chief added that it was a promising start to finally stopping the fighting which erupted in November 2020 after months of tension.
“The secretary-general urges all Ethiopians and the international community to support the bold step taken today by the Federal Government of Ethiopia and the Tigrayan leadership,’’ he said.
The secretary-general pledged his support to the parties in the implementation of the deal.
He also urged both sides to continue with negotiations on the outstanding issues in a spirit of reconciliation in order to reach a lasting political settlement.
The two-year “Tigrayan war” has led to the deaths of more than 600,000 people and the internal displacement of millions of others.
