World Leaders Cautiously Optimistic Over Ethiopia's Peace Deal

World leaders are reacting with cautious optimism after the announcement of a peace deal and a ceasefire between warring parties in northern Ethiopia's Tigray region.

Negotiations began on October 25, 2022 in Johannesburg and concluded after 10 days. The deal calls for the disarming of Tigrayan forces, with both parties agreeing to "permanently silence the guns". The parties agreed to "stop all forms of conflicts, and hostile propaganda", calling Ethiopians within the country and abroad to support efforts for lasting peace.

Human Rights Watch says this provides a crucial opportunity for immediate and rigorous international monitoring to avert further atrocities and a humanitarian catastrophe. Intensified fighting in the Tigray region during the past two months has heightened fears of further rights abuses and caused large-scale displacement of civilians.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Ethiopians and the international community to "support the bold step" taken by the warring parties, while the European Union's Foreign Affairs Chief Joseph Borrell urged the "swift implementation of the agreement" and underscored the need to "to resume humanitarian access in all affected areas and to restore basic services".

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a Twitter post, praised the African Union for "its extraordinary efforts to bring peace to northern Ethiopia".

It is unclear where Eritrea stands, but it has been involved in the Tigray war since the beginning, fighting alongside Ethiopia's federal government.