With Ethiopia now facing the world’s worst famine crisis in a decade, the country has agreed to an immediate and unilateral ceasefire to allow farmers to safely grow their crops.
Ethiopia’s central government accepted the ceasefire offer from the interim administration in the Tigray region, AP News reported. This will allow reprieve for the harvest season to commence.
“[The ceasefire] will enable farmers to till their land, aid groups operate without any military movement around and engage with TPLF [Tigray People’s Liberation Front] remnants who seek peace,” a statement by central government said.
This reprieve will only last until September, when the harvest season will end.
A man-made disaster
The Organisation for World Peace reported that 353 000 people in Ethiopia are estimated to be suffering catastrophic food shortages. Additionally, Unicef reported 33 000 malnourished Ethiopian children at a high risk of death.
Currently, starvation in Ethiopia is more widespread than anywhere else in the world. The nation is facing the worst famine since Somalia’s 2011 famine. The crisis in Ethiopia is widely regarded as a man-made disaster.
In Tigray, access to food is being weaponised by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers.
An Associated Press team reported how they witnessed the Ethiopian military forcing convoys containing food and medical aid to turn around and leave Tigray. Many farmers have also reported soldiers stopping them from harvesting and ploughing, killing their livestock, and stealing their equipment.
The BBC said before the ceasefire, soldiers threatened the farmers, telling them, “You won’t plough, you won’t harvest, and if you try we will punish you.”
The BBC noted that in some remote villages, farmers harvest and plough their fields at night. They have scouts that warn them if soldiers are coming. In Tigray, farming has become an active form of resistance to government abuses.
UN in talks with Ahmed
As reported by dpa International, there are unconfirmed tweets that say representatives of the central Ethiopian government fled Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, in a hurry following the news of the ceasefire.
dpa International also reports that United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres had a telephonic conversation with Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed where he expressed his concern at the situation in Tigray.
In November 2020, the Addis Ababa government started a military offensive against the TPLF. Until then, the TPLF had been in power in Tigray. Reportedly, tensions between the central government and the TPLF had also been occurring for years.
In November, the government in Addis Ababa had started a military offensive against the TPLF, which until then had been in power in Tigray in northern Ethiopia.
