NAIROBI, April 20 (Reuters) – Tigray’s main political party said it was taking back control of the region’s government, effectively voiding a peace deal with Ethiopia’s federal government that ended one of the century’s deadliest conflicts.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) made the statement in a Facebook post on Sunday, accusing the federal government of violating the Pretoria Agreement, which ended the two-year war. The statement said the government had provoked armed conflict within Tigray, withheld funds to pay regional civil servants and extended the tenure of the interim administration’s president without consulting the party.
“It (the federal government) is in a hurry to launch a bloody war once again,” the statement said.
The announcement prompted Getachew Reda, the party’s former spokesman and an adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, to write on X on Sunday that the TPLF’s statement constituted “a clear repudiation” of the post-war structure created by the Pretoria Agreement.
“The international community must … act to stave off the threat of a catastrophic conflict in a region that can ill afford one,” said Getachew, who served as president of Tigray’s interim administration before falling out with the TPLF and being replaced in the role last year.
Prime Minister Abiy’s spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, did not respond to a request for comment about the TPLF’s claims.
TPLF officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The 2020 to 2022 civil war fought between TPLF-led forces and Ethiopia’s national army killed hundreds of thousands of people through direct violence, the collapse of healthcare and famine, according to researchers.
The war stemmed from a breakdown in relations between the TPLF, a guerrilla movement turned political party that dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades, and Abiy, whose appointment as prime minister in 2018 ended the TPLF’s dominance.
The war ceased in late 2022 with the Pretoria Agreement, mediated by the African Union, which called for an interim administration for Tigray, established through dialogue between the two sides, to replace the region’s elected bodies until new elections could be organised.
Despite some progress implementing the deal, it has come under strain in recent months, with armed skirmishes breaking out since January between TPLF forces and the federal army and government-aligned fighters.
TPLF TO STRENGTHEN REGIONAL TIES
In response to the government’s alleged violations, the TPLF said in its statement it would restore the Tigrayan executive and legislature in place of the interim administration and would strengthen friendships with people from neighbouring Ethiopian regions and countries.
The federal government has previously affirmed its commitment to the Pretoria Agreement and accused the TPLF of plotting against it with Eritrea, which won its independence from Ethiopia in 1993. The two countries fought a border war from 1998 to 2000.
Reuters could not independently verify the TPLF’s claims about the government’s alleged violations of the peace deal.
African Union spokesperson Nuur Mohamed was not immediately available for comment on the TPLF’s decision to restore the prior administration.
The TPLF and Eritrea have denied working together. Eritrea, which signed its own peace deal with Ethiopia in 2018, fought in support of Ethiopia’s army during the civil war in Tigray but has more recently bristled at what it views as threatening comments by Abiy asserting landlocked Ethiopia has a right to sea access.
(Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Daniel Wallis)
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