News report: Abdul Qader Al-Haimi

Al-Sudani learned from its sources in Addis Ababa that the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abi Ahmed, accepted in principle; The initiative of the Sudanese Prime Minister and the head of the IGAD Organization, Dr. Abdullah Hamdok, to reach peace with the Tigray Liberation Front, and bring peace to Ethiopia.

It is noteworthy that French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday called Hamdok and Abi Ahmed and called for quick talks to end hostilities in the Ethiopian region of Tigray. “The development of the situation calls for negotiating a cessation of hostilities and the start of a political dialogue between the parties to the conflict in the framework of respect for Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Macron said.

Abi Ahmed’s approval of Hamdok’s initiative is considered a positive step by the Ethiopian government. Accepting the initiative is a major development, regression and concession from Ethiopia following the strong military strikes of Tigray, which called on Addis to exert international pressure on Tigray for a ceasefire announced by Addis Ababa by One.

Yesterday, America said, that the Ethiopian government must allow the arrival of humanitarian aid, and stop the obstacles and restrictions that Addis Ababa put in place and prevent it from reaching the needy.

“The United States is deeply concerned about the increase in tensions and escalation, including the expansion of the TDF’s operations in the Afar and the Ethiopian government’s decision to mobilize additional regional militias,” she added in a statement. This expansion of hostilities exacerbates the already dire humanitarian situation for civilians in the affected areas, and jeopardizes the stability of the Ethiopian state. All parties to the conflict must take immediate steps to end hostilities, secure a negotiated ceasefire, facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to those in need, and preserve national unity and Ethiopia’s territorial integrity. The United States urges both the Ethiopian government and the Tigray Defense Forces to immediately initiate a dialogue to achieve these critical goals.”

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared war on the Tigray region in a campaign known as “law enforcement” in the first week of November last year, following the sharp dispute between the government of the Tigray Liberation Front “Wiani” and the center government, a constitutional dispute that eventually led to the establishment of a government. Al-Wayanyi” single elections in the region.

Since the beginning of the war, there have been international, African and regional initiatives in Addis Ababa, which rejected the calls of the United Nations, the European Group, the African Union initiative, and several other initiatives, but the most prominent initiatives were from the Sudanese Prime Minister, Dr. Abdullah Hamdouk, and the importance of the initiative lies in the fact that it was presented on behalf of the IGAD group and Hamdok, head of the current session of the IGAD.

The IGAF countries consist of Djibouti – Headquarters Country – Sudan, South Sudan, Federal Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The main objectives of IGAD are “food security and environmental protection, maintaining security and peace, promoting human rights, cooperation and economic integration.”

Hamdok’s initiative is also of paramount importance regarding the Sudanese role in particular, and its potential in the impact that it is expected to have on the parties to the Ethiopian conflict, because it is the dispute. It supported Sudan militarily and in kind and opened training camps in its territory to the Ethiopian Peoples Liberation Front under the leadership of the Tigray Liberation Front until they overthrew the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam, starting from Sudanese lands at the beginning of the war.

Abi Ahmed rejected Hamdok’s initiative, presented in the name of IGAD at the beginning of the war, and said that he needed only two weeks to enter Mekele, the capital of Tigray, and arrest the leaders of the rebellion. He did not care about any other initiatives.

But the winds do not like the ships. Tigray launched a comprehensive counterattack in which they regained their historical capital, Mekele, and most of the region’s cities, and penetrated deep into the Amhara. Which led to the disintegration of the Ethiopian army and the escalation of the operations of the Oromo armed opposition, and Gondar and Addis Ababa were threatened with invasion, while famine spread in the besieged Tigray region and international and American pressures escalated on Abi Ahmed to stop the fighting and enter into a dialogue.

Tigray also needs to stop the fighting so that humanitarian aid can reach their region, as the Addis Ababa government has used starvation as a weapon, and it has greatly affected the citizens of the region, as 4 million out of 6 million suffer from the specter of starvation, so they launched desperate attacks in the Afar in an attempt to open a safe passage to provide their region with food They crossed the Addis Ababa road to Djibouti, before the Afar stopped them, but they equally made astonishing progress deep into the Amhara, which contributed to Abiy Ahmed’s acceptance of the initiative.

If there is a ceasefire in Tigray, safe corridors will be opened to deliver relief and humanitarian aid and restore electricity and communications to the stricken region. And the return of more than 70,000 refugees in Sudan to Tigray.

The visit of Samantha Power, the Director of the United States Agency for Development, to Khartoum and Addis Ababa, aims primarily to deliver humanitarian aid to the Tigray region, provided that a cease-fire is established without preconditions and that the parties to the conflict enter into a dialogue, and Sudan has been approved as a gateway for humanitarian aid.

The Ethiopian issue is very complex and all Ethiopian nationalities need dialogue, and not only with Tigray and Oromo, but “Bani Shanqul, Welata, Afar, Qambila and the Somali Region.”

The main point of contention that led to the war remains; Will Ethiopia return to the former ethnic coalition regime that the Tigrayans and the Oromo demand after Abiy Ahmed abolished? It is too early for an answer.