Umamah Bakharia | ub@radioislam.co.za

2 min read
18 November 2022 | 10:40 CAT

The first humanitarian aid convoys have entered Ethiopia’s Tigray region after a truce between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) put an end to a war that began in November 2020.

Lead negotiator for Ethiopia’s government, Redwan Hussein, left, shakes hands with lead Tigray negotiator Getachew Reda, as Kenya’s former president, Uhuru Kenyatta, looks on after the peace talks in Pretoria, South Africa.
Photo credit: Themba Hadebe

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says the convoy has to enter the neighbouring region of Amhara since the route leading to the Tigray region through the Tekeze river was destroyed.

“WFP convoy just entered North West Tigray via Gondar corridor for the first time since June 2021,” said the WFP in a tweet, adding that more food and medical aid are expected to enter the region via “all routes possible”.

In early November, the Ethiopian government and the TPLF met for peace talks in Pretoria, South Africa, to try and find common ground to end the war. This led to a peace agreement signed between the two parties.

Speaking to Radio Islam International on this week’s ‘Media Lens’, analyst Ebrahim Deen says the ceasefire could yield positive results this time.

“It’s holding for balance adoption and demobilisation and disarmament and investigations on human rights abuses – those might not happen so easily, but the fact that there is a [possibility] of hostilities that both groups have signed is quite significant,” says Deen.

Under the ceasefire agreement with the TPLF, which controls the region, the federal government pledged to work with agencies to speed up aid provision.

According to Deen, the war coverage in the Tigray region has had a balanced approach when covering the conflict in the region. However, western media outlets have been more sympathetic to the TPLF as it has controlled the region for decades.

“The TPLF has its own advisors, and many of them are based in western countries, so they were able to shape the narrative in their favour,” says Deen.

The region says it awaits more humanitarian aid to reach people affected by the war.

Listen to the ‘Media Lens’ with Ebrahim Deen here: