APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government is set to start peace talks with representatives of the rebel Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) as of Tuesday April 25, 2023.
“The peace negotiation that will be held with OLA-Shene will start the day after tomorrow in Tanzania,” Abiy said on Sunday.
“The Ethiopian government and people will need this negotiation very much,” Abiy said.
“I call on everybody to play its part to help relieve the current misery being endured by people in the Wollega area.”
The PM first reveal the plan to sit for peace talks with the reble group in his address to the parliament last Month saying it was as part of “government’s ongoing initiatives” to bring internal conflicts to an end.
The ruling Prosperity Party (PP) has already set up a committee led by its vice president to oversee the peace talks, the PM told the parliament.
The rebel group has been fighting the government since it broke away from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) when it renounced armed struggle in 2018.
The split gave rise to a string of armed groups in the region claiming to be one, but with loose ties – a situation that PM Abiy blamed for his administration’s previous unsuccessful bids to initiate peace talks with the rebel group.
Its fighters operate mainly in the western and southern parts of the Oromia Region. Earlier today, the group confirmed that it will sit for peace talks with the federal government with the involvement of an “independent third-party mediator.”
MG/as/APA