Ethiopia Declares Cease-Fire After Rebels Take Tigray Capital

The capture of Mekelle, which also serves as the de facto capital for many humanitarian-aid agencies operating in the region, and the federal government’s declaration of a cease-fire, could mark a decisive shift in the conflict. The U.S. last month imposed sanctions on officials in Ethiopia, one of its key allies on the African continent, pointing to allegations of widespread atrocities against civilians in Tigray.

It was unclear how the Tigrayan forces would respond to the cease-fire declared by the government of Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

There was also no immediate response from neighboring Eritrea, whose troops have been fighting alongside the Ethiopians and whose leader, Isaias Afwerki, has been a longtime opponent of the Tigrayan rebels.

“The cease-fire will facilitate a conducive environment for the agricultural activities and the ongoing humanitarian operations,” Abraham Belay, the head of the government-appointed interim administration of Tigray, told state television in the capital Addis Ababa.

A spokeswoman for the federal government didn’t respond to several requests for comment on the rebel takeover of Mekelle.

The rebels’ capture of the Tigrayan capital adds more uncertainty as Ethiopians wait for the outcome of the national election held last week.

Cameron Hudson, a fellow at the Africa Center of the Washington-based Atlantic Council, said a cease-fire would finally allow access for humanitarian agencies and could save countless lives.

“The reality is Abiy can’t hold Tigray any longer,” he said. “He is trying to spin this…as a tactical retreat, frame it as taking the high ground in pursuit of peace.”

United Nations agencies say that at least 350,000 Tigrayans are already living in famine conditions and that some 90% of the region’s inhabitants—as many as 5.2 million people—are in urgent need of food aid. The U.N.’s Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, has said the situation carries echoes of the 1984 famine that killed as many as one million Ethiopians.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Monday that he had spoken President Ahmed and that he was hopeful that hostilities between all sides would stop following the declaration of the cease-fire.

“Recent events in the Tigray region of Ethiopia are extremely worrisome,” he said in a statement. “They demonstrate, once again, that there is no military solution to the crisis.”

Ethiopia and Eritrea have come under international pressure to end the war, but have previously shown little interest in a cease-fire. The fighting has sent ripples across the Horn of Africa, a volatile region perched next to some of the world’s most vital shipping lanes, and escalated ethnic tensions across Ethiopia, where Mr. Ahmed’s vision of a more centralized state has clashed with several regions’ desire for more autonomy.

Write to Nicholas Bariyo at [email protected]