The lower house of the Ethiopian parliament on Wednesday delisted the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) from terrorist list.
The House approved the motion to remove the TPLF from the terrorist group with a majority vote in its extraordinary session.
The session saw 61 members of the parliament vote against the motion while 5 others abstained.
The move to delist TPLF was made to bring about sustainable peace in northern Ethiopia as per the Pretoria peace deal, authorities say.
The federal government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed a cessation of hostilities agreement last November, ending a two-year-long conflict in the north.
According to the agreement reached between the government and TPLF in November last year, the removal of TPLF from terrorists list was supposed to take place after disarmaments of its fighter and allied combatants are completed though it is not the case.
The National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Redwan Hussein told journalists that the Ethiopian parliament will lift the terror designation of TPLF when the disarmament exercise comes to an end.
The delisting of the rebel group from the terrorist list will be followed by dropping criminal charges against TPLF officials who are still detained in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia had added TPLF to its “terror list” in June 2021.
MG/abj/APA