This archive report was first published on 4 September 2021.
Published on September 4, 2021, the African Union has proposed a plan to end the conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region by urging the government to remove the terrorist tag on the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
The proposal, which was made by the African Union High Representative for the Horn of Africa, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, involves forcing the TPLF to sue for peace and allow elections in the Tigray region.
Kenya's Foreign Minister, Raychelle Omamo, met with Ethiopia's top diplomat, Demeke Mekonnen, in Addis Ababa on Thursday to discuss the proposal. The meeting centered on the issue of the restive Tigray region, as well as the dispute over the Nile dam and the ongoing border tiff between Ethiopia and Sudan.
Kenya has called on Ethiopia to make a 'painful compromise' to end the war in the north, and has offered its support to the country. Diplomatic sources have told The EastAfrican that Kenya thinks the other two issues - the border dispute and the dispute over the dam - have a lower risk of war compared to the atrocities the war in the north has brought the country.
'The problem is internal. Which means Ethiopians themselves have to accept they have a problem and choose dialogue,' said a diplomat familiar with Kenya's proposal. 'Until that happens, they won't resolve the other issues.'
Kenya led Africa's representatives at the UN Security Council in asking Ethiopia and the TPLF to choose dialogue as soon as possible, warning that war will be costly for both sides. Dr Martin Kimani, Kenya's Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, said Ethiopia should consider retaking the TPLF as a political movement, on condition they pull out of regions they invaded, and stop fighting to allow rebuilding of livelihoods crashed in the region.
'We urge the government of Ethiopia to remove all legal, administrative and security barriers to the political dialogue,' said Dr Kimani, in a joint statement endorsed by Tunisia, Niger and St Vincent and Grenadines. 'Peace cannot be made with a political movement that has been labelled a terrorist group.'
