By Giulia Paravicini
NAIROBI, Oct 7 (Archyde.com) – The African Union-led peace talks aimed at ending the two-year conflict in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region have been postponed due to logistical reasons, two diplomatic sources and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front said on Friday.
It was proposed to hold talks early next week.
Both the Ethiopian government and the forces of the Tigray region said on Wednesday they had accepted the African Union’s invitation to hold talks in South Africa, which would be the first formal negotiations between the two sides since the outbreak of war in November 2020.
The conflict between the federal government and forces led by a party that has dominated the political scene for more than two decades has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and displaced millions.
The two diplomatic sources, who declined to be identified, said the delay was related to organizing logistics and that no other date had been set yet.
Getachew Reda, a spokesman for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the party that leads the regional government, said the AU had not consulted Tigray leaders before sending the invitations.
“You can’t expect people to show up on a certain date as if this was some kind of friendly gathering,” he added in a text message.
Legisi Tulu, an Ethiopian government spokesman, or Ebba Kalondo, a spokeswoman for the African Union, did not respond to requests for comment.
One of the invitation letters from the African Union, seen by Archyde.com, said the negotiations would be led by Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union’s High Envoy for the Horn of Africa, with the support of former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and former South African Vice President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngoka.
Despite the agreement to hold talks, a number of interested parties have expressed concerns about the process.
Some activists from Amhara, a province bordering Tigray whose forces fought alongside the federal government in the war, have spoken out against the talks.
“The current African Union-led peace talks process is marginalizing the Amharas, the group most affected by the war,” the Amhara Association of America, a pressure group, said in a statement.
Even in its letter accepting the invitation of the African Union, the TPLF indicated that it had reservations, and requested clarification as to who had been invited as participants, observers and guarantors.
“There are a number of issues that need to be resolved before (the talks) take place, and even then the mediators will face a huge challenge… to get the two sides to commit to a new truce,” said William Davison, senior Ethiopia analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Meanwhile, the diplomats said the government of neighboring Eritrea, which also fought alongside the Ethiopian federal government in the war, has not been invited to the talks.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gabr Meskel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.