An unnamed top official at the United Sates Department on Tuesday said the peace deal signed between the Government of Ethiopia and Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) includes the withdrawal of Amhara special forces, Afar militia withdrawal from Tigray.
“Certainly the agreement calls for the withdrawal of, as you pointed out, not only Eritrean forces but Amhara special forces and Afar militia that are currently in Tigray. I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves in terms of what will happen if these commitments aren’t abided by, because what we’re hearing from the Government of Ethiopia and certainly from the other side in terms of the Tigrayan authorities is that they are committed to ensuring that this happens,” the U.S. official during an interview with journalists.
The official made the comment in response what it the non-Ethiopian National Defense Force and foreign forces indicated in the peace deal refers to. One of the articles of deal the two sides have signed in Pretoria, South Africa a few weeks ago stated that non-Ethiopian National Defense Force of Ethiopia and foreign forces to withdraw from Tigray.
“The United States always has at its disposal as a policy tool the prospect of sanctions, and we will not hesitate to deploy them if that should become necessary in terms of holding actors accountable for human rights violations or for the purposes of trying to ensure that this agreement is respected and abided.”
“There are clearly – there is a tremendous focus on both sides understanding that because of the language which ties the withdrawal of foreign forces and other forces that are non-ENDF to the disarmament, that it’s in both parties’ interests that this be realized expeditiously.”
“They have formed the joint committee to review procedures and implementation. This is a work in progress. We are encouraged again by the comments made publicly today by Prime Minister Abiy to the national parliament, assembly, reiterating his commitment for peace,” the official said.
“And therefore the expectation is that while this may take some time that both parties understand that there was in the end no military option for success and that the only success could come through dialogue, and that’s why ultimately this Pretoria process that then has continued on through Nairobi and which will continue on with additional rounds that will be focused on resolving and addressing political issues, that it just – it needs to be through dialogue.”
“But we’re under no illusions. This is the early days. It’s promising in terms of the follow-on action that we’re starting to see happening, but you can rest assured that we won’t rest for a minute and we’ll remain completely focused as the United States in supporting the efforts of both sides to go forward through the African Union process and their verification and monitoring mechanism to continue to make incremental progress until all aspects of both agreements that were signed are realized,” the U.S. official said.
After the war between TPLF and ENDF has started oin November 2020, some areas which used to be part of Tigray region such as Welkait, are occupied by the Amhara Militia and included as part of the Amhara region of Ethiopia. The Amhara region and many people in those areas argue that these areas were illegally taken by the TPLF and became part of Tigray region after 1991.
Now the question many people are asking is will Amhara region be willing to allow these areas to be part of Tigray region obeying the Pretoria peace deal if indeed the agreement includes these controversial areas as the U.S. official said.
In his latest comment to the members of parliament this week, Prime Minister Abiy indicated that his government is committed to implement the peace deal and issues related to Welkait will be handled according to the constitution of Ethiopia.