KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) – Ethiopia’s prime minister said Friday that Eritrea agreed to withdraw its forces from the Tigray region, where witnesses described them as looting, killing and raping civilians.
The statement from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office comes after intense pressure from the United States and others to deal with the deadly crisis in Tigray.
Abiy’s statement after a visit to Eritrea said Ethiopian forces would take control of the “immediately effective” border areas.
Abiy has only acknowledged last week the presence of Eritrean soldiers, enemies of the Tigray leaders, who once dominated the Ethiopian government.
The new statement does not say how many Eritrean soldiers there have been in Ethiopia, although witnesses have estimated it well in the thousands.
Eritrea said in a statement that Abiy and its president, Isaias Afwerki, had thoroughly discussed the “common strategic partnership and envisioned a joint trajectory, the vicious military attacks unleashed over the past five months and disinformation campaigns,” but he did not specifically mention Tigray. Eritrea’s statement added that “important lessons have been learned from the temporary obstacles precipitated by this reality that will further strengthen the joint commitments of the two sides in the period ahead.”
In a tweet, Eritrea’s ambassador to Japan said that “as of today, the units of the #Eritrea / n Defense Forces will surrender all posts within the borders of #Ethiopia that were left vacant by the Ethiopian Defense Forces “.
Abiy surprised the region in 2018 by making peace with Eritrea after a long border war in the Tigray region, a success for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But since the current Tigray conflict began in November, Abiy has been accused of partnering with Eritrea to persecute Tigray’s now fugitive leaders.
Abiy’s statement accuses former Tigray leaders of starting the conflict by attacking Ethiopian forces and then luring Eritrea into the fighting by firing rockets into the Eritrean capital. But witnesses have alleged the involvement of Eritrean soldiers from the start of the fighting.
Weeks ago, the U.S. demanded that Eritrean soldiers leave Tigray immediately, and pressure has risen in recent days with the Biden administration sending Senator Chris Coons to Ethiopia nearly a week ago for hours of talks with Abiy.
No one knows how many thousands of people, especially civilians, were killed during the Tigray fighting. The region of about 6 million people has been largely separated from the world, and despite some progress in providing aid, aid workers have warned that the food and other supplies that arrive are far from enough amid fears of fam.
And only in recent days has the UN human rights office said it has been allowed to enter the Tigray region with limited capacity to support investigations into alleged atrocities, including mass rapes of Eritrean soldiers and others.
The United Nations refugee agency told reporters in Geneva that it had finally reached two refugee camps that had housed some 20,000 people in nearby Eritrea and found them “completely destroyed.” It was said that only 9,000 of the refugees have been counted.
A spokeswoman for Abyy’s office did not immediately respond to questions about Friday’s statement, including why the Eritreans had not withdrawn after previous requests.