'War is not a solution' - Ethiopian ex-PM welcomes peace talks between government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front

Former Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn has welcomed the proposed peace negotiations between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), set to take place in South Africa.

Speaking at a press conference in Addis Ababa’s Sheraton Hotel on Friday morning, Hailemariam said he had confidence that it would go well. “War is not a solution,” he said. “Ending this conflict in a very peaceful manner is very essential.”

He said it depended on “all parties in this conflict” to deliberate “in a frank manner,” without “external interferences”. 

He said the fact that both the Ethiopian government and the TPLF have in principle agreed to take part in the talks was “a step forward”.

It would be the first time since the start of the war in December 2020 that the two sides would sit around a negotiating table, although there has been an effort at a national dialogue before. 

Eritrea, which has reportedly sent its troops across the border into Tigray after a five-month ceasefire was broken on August 24, will not be part of the negotiations. 

Hailemariam said he’s very happy that South Africa had offered a platform to the parties in the conflict, whose peace negotiations will be led by the African Union.

Hailemariam, who is a Tana Forum board member, said he was expressing his personal opinion on this at the press conference about the resumption of the annual Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa, which was held virtually during the Covid-19 lockdown. 

The forum gives a platform for senior officials and experts to deliberate “frankly and without the diplomatic niceties” at play in multilateral forums about security on the continent, but it’s not meant to focus narrowly on specific countries, like Ethiopia, he said.