This archive report was first published on 18 November 2021.
November 18, 2021 - Nairobi, Kenya
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged Ethiopia's warring parties to engage in inclusive dialogue, a call that comes as Kenya's Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo said there were signs of a possible ceasefire in the country.
Blinken, who was in Nairobi on the first day of his Africa trip, told diplomats that his government wanted all sides in the conflict to lay down their arms and open humanitarian corridors to save the starving.
For more than a year, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) has been fighting the Ethiopian National Defence Forces after the former reportedly attacked a northern command in Tigray.
The conflict has led to massive displacements, deaths of thousands, and an ongoing humanitarian crisis. The TPLF has since announced an alliance with the Oromo Liberation Army, risking the spread of the conflict further south.
"It is very important that the differences, the conflicts, be resolved by people sitting down at the table, talking, discussing, negotiating," Blinken told a joint press conference in Nairobi.
Kenya's Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo also expressed optimism about a possible ceasefire, saying that President Uhuru Kenyatta deals with the issue as a friend and neighbour of Ethiopia.
"We believe in the potential of Ethiopia to find a resolution to this crisis. We believe that a ceasefire is possible. We believe that the other conditions regarding humanitarian access are possible," Omamo said.
President Kenyatta has twice this month asked warring parties to compromise, warning that only Ethiopian leaders will find peace for their country.
On Sunday, he travelled to Addis Ababa, where he met with PM Abiy. The trip was seen as his latest effort to prevail upon parties to talk.
