The leaders of the warring sides in Ethiopia are to meet in the Kenyan capital Nairobi later on Monday to chart a way forward to a disarmament process which was part of a recent peace agreement reached in South Africa.
Ethiopian Defense Force Chief of Staff, Field Marshal Berhanu Jula, and the leader of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, Tadesse Worede will negotiate on how to disarm rebels who have been waging a two-year conflict with federal government troops.
Redwan Hussien, Security Advisor to the Prime Minister who led the Ethiopian delegation at the peace talk in South Africa said the two military leaders already had a phone conversation on how to proceed after the agreement was announced.
It is unclear why Kenya was chosen as the meeting point when the two leaders could meet in Ethiopia.
On November 2 the Ethiopian government and the TPLF reached an agreement, in South Africa, that ended two years of bloody conflict which has killed tens of thousands of people and driven more than two million from their homes.
The rebel groups renounced their claim of an independent government power as under the deal the Tigray region is to be under transitional administration until regional elections are held organized by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia.
In principle the rebels also agreed to a single national defense force in the country and recognized the constitutional rights of the Ethiopian National Defense Force to be deployed anywhere in the Tigray region.
Mekelle, which hosts the seat of the regional government, is to be under the federal forces with immediate effect.
Ethnic Tigray activists based in the diaspora are rejecting the agreement and putting pressure on the TPLF to abandon it.
On the other hand, Ethiopians, including those living in the Tigray region have expressed relief that the conflict has ended.
MG/as/APA