TPLF ‘won’t accept’ AU mediation as talks with Ethiopian federal gov’t nears

ADDIS ABABA – The leader of Ethiopia’s rebellious Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Debretsion Gebremichael, had reportedly told former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo last month that his group won’t accept to go to peace talks with the Ethiopian federal government if the mediator is to be the African Union.

In January, Obasanjo who is an African Union mediator for the Horn of Africa, visited the Tigrayan capital Mekelle and met Debretsion to discuss de-escalation between the TPLF and Ethiopian federal forces which he hoped could lead to a formal ceasefire process.

Speaking to Sudans Post this evening, a TPLF diplomat in US’s Nebraska said his group is clear about any peace talk between them and the Ethiopian government and won’t accept an African Union mediation saying the continental body “does not fit to mediate” between the two adversaries

“We intent to engage the government of Abiy Ahmed in order for our people to attain peace, but we are not ready to accept the mediation to be conducted by the African Union because we are not convinced that this organization is neutral, and even it does not have a coherent policy among its members,” the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

“The President of Tigray Region Gebremichael has informed the African Union envoy Obasanjo that he will not accept the involvement of the African Union in the name of mediating between our people. We need a neutral body that does not have interests in our country and this conflict,” the diplomat said.

Formal ceasefire talks

The senior rebel diplomat further revealed that progress has been made between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) with the parties agreeing to set date for formal ceasefire talks between the two belligerents raising hopes for end to the Ethiopian conflict.

“The leadership of the TPLF and the Ethiopian government have agreed – in principles – to go for ceasefire talks even if the preconditions made by our leadership are not met because the talk may be a forum for a way to remove these foreign forces in our country,” he added.

“So, we will go to negotiate with the federal government by ourselves without a mediator in this ceasefire talk and we will try to present our demands for a full peace talks. If they are ready to end this senseless conflict, then they will accept to remove the foreign forces and create a demilitarized zone in the meantime,” he added.

Last week, Debretsion revealed in an interview with the BBC that they were in an informal negotiation with the Ethiopian government for a ceasefire, but a senior Ethiopian official said some of the demands by the Tigray rebel group were unrealistic and hard to meet.