• The Tigrayan conflict started after the regional government in the province unilaterally held elections, and then in November 2020, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) attacked the Ethiopian army base in the provincial capital, Mekelle.
  • On November 2, 2022, the second anniversary of the conflict, the Ethiopian government and the TPLF agreed to a permanent cessation of hostilities.
  • This is the first step in the process of bringing to an end a brutal internecine conflict that has resulted in the deaths of more than half a million people and displacement of millions more. There were credible reports of ethnic cleansing, sexual violence, and other war crimes. The people of Tigray were under a tight military blockade that cut them off from from electricity, banking, and other essential services.
  • Getachew Reda, a senior TPLF leader, and Redwan Hussein, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s National Security Adviser, signed the deal in Pretoria, South Africa, after 10 days of talks.
  • Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo represented the AU at the talks and former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta played a key role as mediator.
  • The Pretoria peace deal contains several provisions for the disarmament of rebel fighters, the reintegration of Tigray into the Ethiopian federation, and the speedy disbursement of much-needed humanitarian aid to the Tigray Region.
  • The Ethiopian government has given an undertaking that it will rebuild all the infrastructure that was damaged in Tigray in the conflict.
  • The deal paves the way for Ethiopian troops to re-enter Mekelle and explicitly stipulates that federal forces will henceforth be in charge of airports, highways, border crossings, and other government facilities within Tigray.