• Ethiopia’s Tigray rebels will eventually be disarmed and demobilized.
• Millions displaced, thousands dead, and millions more in desperate need of food aid.
• Olusegun Obasanjo: “This is not the end of the peace process but the beginning of it”.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian government have agreed to permanently halt hostilities, marking a crucial step toward the conclusion of the bloody conflict that has left millions displaced, thousands dead, and millions more in desperate need of food aid.

The two sides said on Wednesday evening that they would “permanently silence the guns and end the two years of conflict in northern Ethiopia” in a joint statement published after delegates shook hands.

Ethiopia’s Tigray rebels will eventually be disarmed and demobilized, according to the statement. “We have also agreed on a detailed program of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration for the TPLF combatants, taking into account the security situation on the ground,” it read.

Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president of Nigeria and the African Union’s (AU) High Representative for the Horn of Africa, originally made the announcement at a press conference following a week-long round of negotiations in Pretoria.

There will be a “systematic, orderly, smooth and coordinated disarmament, restoration of services, unhindered access to humanitarian supplies, protection of civilians, especially women children and other vulnerable groups,” Obasanjo said.

An AU high-level partner will be tasked with “monitoring, supervising and implementation,” he added, without providing more details.

“This is not the end of the peace process but the beginning of it,” Obasanjo said.

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