Ethiopia govt, key opposition parties agree to restructure armed operations

Ethiopia

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has instituted a project office to oversee the implementation of an agreement with former rebel groups, his office announced on Tuesday.

Its creation according to Abiy’s chief of staff, was necessitated after the government reached an agreement with key opposition parties. There were no further details of the particular parties involved.

“The agreement covers disarmament, demobilization & reintegration of former fighters. PM Abiy appointed Tesfaye Yegezu to lead the Project Office (under the PM’s Office) tasked to coordinate this effort,” a tweet from the chief of staff read in part.

The gov’t of #Ethiopia had reached an agreement with key opposition parties. The agreement covers disarmament, demobilization & reintegration of former fighters. PM Abiy appointed Tesfaye Yegezu to lead the Project Office (under the PM’s Office) tasked to coordinate this effort.

— Fitsum Arega (@fitsumaregaa) August 28, 2018

Since his coming into office in April 2018, Abiy has led a multi-sectoral reform of Ethiopia’s government machinery. Key planks of the reforms have included unbanning rebel groups as terrorist organizations.

The government has since held peace talks with a number of these formerly banned groups. The most recent being government’s peace deal with the Tigray Peoples Democratic Movement, TPDM.

The talks were hosted by the Eritrean government in Asmara. Ethiopia and Eritrea agreed in July 2018 to make peace after decades of being on war footing with one another. Eritrea has since undertaken efforts to help ex-rebel groups it hosted to return to Ethiopia.