(Washington) The United States on Saturday welcomed the “ongoing withdrawal” of Eritrean troops from northern Ethiopia, whose presence is considered a major obstacle to a peace agreement with the Tigray rebels.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the “ongoing withdrawal of Eritrean troops from northern Ethiopia” in a phone call with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, whose partnership with former rival Eritrea his country, had poisoned his relations with Washington.
He called the withdrawal “significant progress”, referring to the peace agreement signed in November in South Africa between Addis Ababa and the Tigrayan rebels.
The statement from the US State Department does not specify the localities from which the Asmara forces withdrew.
This agreement, which aims to put an end to a deadly conflict of almost two years, provides in fact that foreign forces and those not forming part of the army withdraw from Tigray “simultaneously” with the disarmament of the rebel forces .
Mr. Blinken “welcomed this development, noting that it was crucial to ensuring lasting peace in northern Ethiopia,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. communicated.
Eritrea made no official comment on the withdrawal of its troops.
But it remains to be seen whether the troop movement is part of a full withdrawal plan or whether some Eritrean troops will remain.
Blinken also expressed lingering concerns about instability in Oromia, another region of that country, where a separate conflict has escalated as calm returns to Tigray.
Omission in the peace agreement
The rebels of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), under heavy pressure on the battlefield, agreed in Pretoria to lay down their arms and restore the authority of the federal government.
In return, the Ethiopian authorities have agreed to reopen access to the region, where millions of people are in urgent need of food and other forms of assistance.
But the Pretoria agreement did not provide for the withdrawal of Eritrean troops, accused by the United States and human rights organizations of some of the worst abuses of this bloody conflict.
The United States and the European Union have sought to put pressure on Eritrea, which is already one of the most isolated countries in the world, in particular on the Red Sea Trading Corporation, its largest private group.
The war broke out in November 2020 when the TPLF, which held power in Ethiopia until the advent of Abiy Ahmed, attacked Ethiopian federal military installations in Tigray.
Mr Abiy, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in part for reconciling with Eritrea, unleashed a major offensive against the TPLF, which at one point seemed poised to advance towards the capital Addis Ababa .
Tigrayans and Eritreans share linguistic ties among other things, with Eritrean strongman Isaias Afwerki and the TPLF becoming sworn enemies, both seeking to dominate the region.
In an open letter published in late December, the Eritrean Embassy in the United States accused the TPLF of wanting to seize heavy weaponry from the Ethiopian government and overthrow the government in Addis Ababa.
The embassy said the rebels intended to undo the 2018 Ethiopia-Eritrea normalization agreement and that “the continued destabilization of Eritrea was an integral and assertive part of the TPLF’s insurgency war.” »
In a previous report, Human Rights Watch said Eritrean forces massacred dozens of children in the historic city of Aksum, Tigray province, in November 2020.