Pretoria Peace Agreement Implementation Risks
A new report on Monday warned the ongoing failure to implement the Pretoria peace agreement risks a relapse to devastating war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and beyond.
The 78 pages long report launched by the Pan-African Agenda Institute (PAAI), a think that focuses on enabling the continent to realize a dynamic, peaceful, prosperous and integrated future disclosed that the November 2,2022 Pretoria peace agreement between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) halted active hostilities but failed to deliver on transition to peace.
“The Pretoria agreement now risks becoming a cautionary tale of unfulfilled promises culminating in a preventable return to war. Without decisive action, we face a preventable return to war in 2026,” stated the PAAI report.
The PAAI report also stated that a large part of Tigray region remains occupied by Eritrean army and ethnic Amhara forces and nearly one million people continue to be displaced highlighting the many failures of Pretoria agreement implementation.
The PAAI report called for determined diplomatic re-engagement backed by states with leverage such as the United States to halt relapse to catastrophic war that risks turning regional.
It also called for the establishment of a “Friends of the Pretoria Agreement” coalition comprising the US, United Nations, European Union, African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development to replace the AU monitoring with credible enforcement mechanisms.
The Tigray war from 2020-2022 pitting Tigrayan forces against the combined forces of Ethiopia and Eritrea governments is estimated to have killed at least 600,000 people through direct combat, siege, starvation, and deprivation of essential medical services making it the deadliest conflict in the African continent in decades.
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