Eritrea will withdraw troops from Ethiopia almost five months after a conflict started in the Tigray region, Ethiopia’s prime minister has said.
The soldiers are there to back Ethiopia’s government as it fought a group that challenged the central government’s rule.
Thousands have died in the conflict, human rights groups say.
Eritrea has not confirmed the troop withdrawal from some areas across the border in Ethiopia.
The presence of Eritrean troops in Ethiopia was especially controversial because the two countries had fought a bitter border war, which was only officially ended after Abiy Ahmed became prime minister in 2018 – a move which earned him the Nobel Peace prize the following year.
The conflict began in November after the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) captured military bases in the northern Ethiopian region.
The TPLF had been the ruling party in the area but had had a massive falling-out with Prime Minister Abiy over the future of Ethiopia’s ethnically based federal system and their role in government.
He admitted this week for the first time that Eritrean troops were in the region, saying they feared they would be attacked by Tigray’s fighters.
The soldiers are accused of committing atrocities and Ethiopia is under growing international pressure including from the United Nations to end the conflict.
But the troop withdrawal is unlikely to end the fighting as the political dispute between Mr Abiy and the TPLF remains unresolved.
Source: Fiilafmonline/BBC
