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Rebuilding trust: this was the primary objective of the first visit, Monday, December 26, of an Ethiopian government delegation to the capital of the Tigray region. The rapprochement is progressing with, in particular, the resumption of Ethiopian Airlines flights to Mekele. It now remains to implement the unfulfilled promises of the Pretoria peace agreement.
The delegation sent to the capital of Tigray Monday included in particular the adviser to the Prime Minister for national security, but also several ministers and the director of the agency in charge of road infrastructure and the CEOs of the public companies Ethiopian Airlines, Ethio Telecom and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.
Visiting Ethiopian ministers left technical teams behind. Because if almost all of Tigray has already been connected to the national electricity grid, what remains to be done is really not negligible. The restoration of telecommunications is an example. Ethio Telecom has announced that 27 towns in Tigray have already been connected to the telephone network. The connection will be made in the coming days along six separate routes, according to its CEO.
The uncertain agenda of the laying down of arms
As for domestic flights, Shire Airport is operational, according to the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines. And regular Addis Ababa – Mekele flights are due to resume on Wednesday, December 28, as well as to Aksum, ” soon “, he said. Finally, according to the management of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, audits are underway for the restoration of banking services, which have only been restored in some towns in the region, but not in the capital.
The main sticking point remains the military issue. By virtue of the peace agreement, the Tigrayan forces must lay down their arms and the Eritrean army, as well as the Amhara militiamen, must withdraw from the region, but according to an agenda that is not very clear. However, on Tuesday morning, following returning to Addis Ababa, Redwan Hussein, the Prime Minister’s national security adviser Abiy Ahmedasserted that ” surrender of heavy weapons “and the resumption of control of Tigray by the federal army should theoretically be effective” by Thursday next, December 29.
