Second round of Tigray talks to kick off in Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya - The second rounds of talks between the Tigray People's Liberation Front [TPLF] and the government of Ethiopia are set to kick off in Nairobi, it has emerged, just over a week after the parties reached a preliminary agreement in South Africa after a week of intense negotiations.

According to the agreement, the involved parties will start the negotiations, noting that within five days Ethiopia and Tigray military leaders must meet in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and immediate ex-president of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta are in charge of the talks.

The negotiations will be on the “detailed modalities for disarmament for the TPLF combatants, taking into account the security situation on the ground.” The parties are also set to take stock of progress made so far since the signing of the first peace deal in South Africa.

According to reports, these talks are only engaged by warring parties, and the African Union observers will follow up on the cessation of the hostilities agreement signed in Pretoria, South Africa. The initial agreement was reached following mounting pressure from a number of stakeholders.

Unfortunately, the second phase of talks is set to commence when Eritrea and Ethiopia have not yet stopped the war, the teams are said to have activated another airstrike over the weekend. The United Nations has called for the immediate withdrawal of Eritrean troops while asking parties to allow humanitarian teams to reach those affected.

The International Monetary Fund [IMF] welcomed the declaration of a ceasefire in Ethiopia following a two-year civil war and said it’s weighing the next steps on a potential funding program. The parties started fighting in November 2020, leading to the death of thousands of people.

Ethiopia’s government and the dissident Tigray People’s Liberation Front agreed to stop fighting last week on Wednesday after 10 days of negotiations in South Africa. The accord has raised hopes that an end may be in sight to a conflict that’s left thousands of people dead and forced millions more to flee their homes.

But despite the truce, a lot of concerns have been raised by a number of Tigrayans, who believe that TPLF was given a raw deal. So far, senior officials leading the talks from Tigray including spokesperson Getachew Reda are yet to publicly comment on the matter despite being part of negotiations.

"The letter of the deal was hot garbage and we haven't gotten any details, updates, or even basic expectations. I won't say TPLF left Tigray to the wolves quite yet, though. That was a brutal negotiation and we don't really know what happened yet. Nonetheless, the silence is irking," says Buruk Aregawi.

UPDATE: The talks kicked off in Nairobi, with former Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta arriving at Moran Centre in Karen where Ethiopian Government officials and Tigray region's officials are meeting to discuss the disarmament process.

GAROWE ONLINE