The African Union (AU)-led peace talks aimed at ending the two-year conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, will be held in South Africa on Monday, according to the Ethiopian government.
“AUC (African Union Commission) has informed us that the peace talks is (sic) set for 24 October 2022, to be held in South African,” Redwan Hussien, the Ethiopian prime minister’s national security advisor tweeted.
He added that the Ethiopian government was committed to the peace talks, which suffered a stillbirth more than two weeks ago.
But Ethiopia will likely go into talks complaining that the security situation in Tigray is being exaggerated, with allegations of renewed attacks on civilians in Tigray.
The AU is yet to issue a statement about the talks.
On Tuesday, at an Institute for Security Studies seminar in Addis Ababa, South Africa’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Xolisa Makaya, said talks would go ahead “soon.”
Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, the AU high representative for the Horn of Africa, is expected to lead the process, along with former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta.
On Wednesday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus – a Tigrayan who is the director-general of the World Health Organisation – said six million people in Tigray were kept under siege for almost two years, without banking, food, electricity, and healthcare, which were being used as weapons of war by Ethiopia.
