Rebels in Ethiopia's Tigray announces they will abide ceasefire
Rebels in Tigray have welcomed the African Union statement calling for an immediate ceasefire and said they would respect an internationally backed truce.
Residents and militias stand next to houses destroyed by an airstrike during the fight between the Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF) and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) forces in Kasagita town, Afar region, Ethiopia, February 25, 2022.
Insurgents in Ethiopia's rebel-held Tigray region have announced they would respect a ceasefire as fighting intensified in the country's war-torn north, and the African Union called for an immediate truce.
International concern is growing around the fate of Shire, a city of 100,000 people in northwest Tigray, where Ethiopian and Eritrean troops have launched a joint offensive and civilian casualties have been reported.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has joined the United States and other Western powers in voicing alarm over the worsening violence and called for a peaceful settlement to "this catastrophic conflict".
On Sunday, AU Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat urged the warring sides to "recommit to dialogue as per their agreement to direct talks to be convened in South Africa".
"The Chairperson strongly calls for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire and the resumption of humanitarian services" to areas cut off by the fighting, Faki said in a statement released on Sunday, but dated Saturday.
Authorities in Tigray, which has been under rebel control since June 2021, welcomed the statement and said they would respect an internationally backed ceasefire.
"We are ready to abide by an immediate cessation of hostilities," their statement read.
"We also call on the international community to compel the Eritrean army to withdraw from Tigray, take practical steps towards an immediate cessation of hostilities, and press the Ethiopian Government to come to the negotiating table."
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Pressure for peace
A spokesman for Ethiopia's government did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by AFP news agency.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and the Tigrayan authorities have accepted an AU invitation to talk, but negotiations set for last weekend in South Africa failed to materialise and no new date has been announced.
International alarm over the latest fighting came as US special envoy Mike Hammer arrived in Addis Ababa to push for a peaceful resolution to nearly two years of conflict.
Fighting resumed in August after a five-month lull, dimming hopes of settling a conflict that has killed untold numbers of civilians, and been marked by atrocities on all sides.
"Intensively working with the African Union and other partners to launch an AU-led peace process in the coming days," the US State Department's Africa Bureau posted on Twitter on Sunday.
Talks were to be mediated by the AU's Horn of Africa envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, South Africa's former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta.
Diplomats suggested logistical issues were partly to blame for last weekend's much-anticipated meeting in South Africa not going ahead.
Fresh offensives on multiple fronts have halted desperately needed aid into Tigray, where the UN says millions have fled their homes, and hundreds of thousands are close to famine.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC), an aid organisation delivering relief to Tigray, announced on Saturday that one of its staff was among three civilians killed in an attack in Shire, while another was injured.
The World Food Programme (WFP) on Sunday said it received reports of Friday's attack near where the IRC was distributing food "to WFP beneficiaries, including vulnerable mothers and children".
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