The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, declined arbitration by Chairperson of the African Union to mediate the 24-day armed conflict between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), APA has learned.
The Prime Minister on Friday held talks with special envoys of Cyril Ramaphosa namely former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former President of Mozambique Joaquim Chissano, and former President of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe.
Abiy discussed at length the patience with which his government handled the provocations and destabilization agenda the TPLF orchestrated for more than two years, Prime Minister Office said in a statement.
He told the envoys the deliberate attack on the Northern Command of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, which he said constitutes high treason, was the final straw which forced the federal government to act in protection of the constitutional order of the country.
Prime Minister Abiy expressed the Federal Government’s constitutionally mandated responsibility to enforce rule of law in the region and across the country.
“Failure to do so would nurture a culture of impunity with devastating cost to the survival of the country,” he emphasized.
He told the envoy his government’s determination to apprehend and bring to justice the TPLF clique and their operatives who also perpetrated the grave crimes against humanity in Maikadra in south west of Tigray region
According to the premier, the government would extend utmost commitment to the protection and security of civilians during the rule of law operations taking place in the region.
The premier further announced readiness of the federal government to receive, rehabilitate and resettle citizens that have fled, by setting up four camps established to rehabilitate returnees before resettling them back into their original locales.
MG/abj/APA