Let us start with the informal saying about going to war versus sitting at a round table for a negotiation. The western countries first sit at a round table and negotiate. If negotiation fails they go to war and settle it. On the other hand, African countries first try to solve the problem by war and finally they sit at a round table to negotiate for a settlement. It is a saying and it seems factual. Now, let us come to your questions. You asked "what are they to negotiate about?" There are a lot of issues to negotiate. To name one and important cause of the conflict is the handing over to justice of those personalities who were in power for 27 years and embezzled the treasury of the Ethiopian people. These people ran away from the capital and were fugitives in Mekele. The list of names of the wanted personality is hearalde openly by court. Some of them are dead now and others are still fighting to avoid presenting themselves to court. So the main issue of the negotiation could be the aforementioned case. The other important agenda of negotiation could be the reinstating of the Tigray administration by Tigrians excluding the personalities who are in the list of the wanted personalities by the court. The agendas for negotiation are plenty. Your second question was "Actually what do they want?". To answer this question, we may need to go back before the start of the war and look at what both warring factions were demanding. The Ethiopian government was demanding the hand over of certain personalities who were in power and later on they were hiding among the Tigerian people in Mekel as mentioned earlier. The rebel groups demanded that the Ethiopian government drop the charges and stop hunting fugitives hiding in Mekele. This is the main cause of the war. The fugitives decided to either die in battle fields rather than give up their hands and present in court. Even some of them like Dr. Deberetsion, the president of the Tigray region said that he does not want to give up his hand and be beaten in jail. Some of them like Sebhat Nega handed over his hand and his case was seen in court. The conflict is exaggerated by the sinister aim of the fugitive group to comfoulage their objective by covering the self-determination of the Tigray people. The Tigray people are deceived by the fugitive group. The US and European countries played their dirty game knowing that the fugitives were in trouble so they involved themselves as rescuers of the fugitive. You may wonder why the fugitive wanted to engulf Eritrea in this conflict. The fugitives had one old and dirty card that they thought would divert the attention of the Ethiopian people, and that is to engage Ethiopia in war with Eritrea. This time it didn't work. Generally, we can say that the tsunami is against the fugitives and the remaining fugitives have to give up their hand and be presented in court. The negotiation could start at that point. Finaly, just to mention for the record, the Ethiopian government does not need to go to Tigray. They can finish it simply by cordening Tgray in a circle. Time will show the fugitives can not go on like this for a long time. Either they are going to end desperately in war or they are going to be dealt by the tigray people.
