US Secretary Blinken sees marked improvement in Ethiopia after peace deal | News24

• Ethiopia signatory Pthis is the deal Reiterated their commitment to peace and acknowledged the need for accountability and transitional justice.
• The US has provided a humanitarian aid package of R5.95 billion to Ethiopia in 2023.
• Ethiopia is also working to match the benchmarks set for education in the US. african development and opportunity act,

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that overcoming toxic grievances and ethnic divisions is the only way to break the cycle of political and ethnic violence in Ethiopia.

Blinken arrived in Ethiopia on Tuesday night to review the cessation of hostilities in the Tigray region and reports of human rights violations.

Blinken’s first meeting on Wednesday was with Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen.

After this he met the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed. “They discussed significant progress in implementing the no-hostility agreement following the silence of the guns in northern Ethiopia,” the US State Department said in a statement.

Blinken also met with Ethiopian civil society organizations regarding their concerns about reports of human rights violations.

“We have certainly been talking a lot about the very significant cessation of hostilities in Tigray, which has generated very significant benefits, but one aspect of that is certainly the importance of transitional justice and accountability, making sure that every The rights of Ethiopians are protected,” Blinken said at a media conference ahead of the meeting.

The highlight of Blinken’s visit was his meeting with the signatories of the peace accord that ended two years of fighting in Tigray in November.

During the meeting, Ethiopia’s National Security Advisor Redwan Hussein and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) spokesman Getachew Reda shared the progress being made with the peace deal.

He outlined improvements made in silencing the guns, providing humanitarian aid, resumption of services, as well as the removal of Tigrean heavy weapons and the withdrawal of Eritrean forces. He said that a lot of work still needed to be done with regard to the Pretoria Cessation Agreement (COHA).

“They talked about the importance of the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Program and the need to fully develop and implement it,” the US State Department said in a statement.

Blinken also announced a new humanitarian aid package for Ethiopia for 2023.

“We are going to provide an additional $331 million (R6 billion) in aid through this Joint Emergency Operations Program to try to reach more people in Ethiopia who need food security, and we think we can will reach 13 million or so people being particularly affected by the drought,” he said on Wednesday during a tour of the UN logistics center’s warehouse.

Blinken also noted that aid had been increased to Tigray and that basic services were slowly being restored.

“Humanitarian aid is flowing, finally reaching almost all communities; services are being restored in the Tigray region; TPLF is disarming; Eritrean and other non-federal forces are departing.

“Dedicated diplomacy of mediators from the African Union (AU), from Kenya, from South Africa, supported by the United States was essential to achieve this agreement. And the AU monitoring mechanism is key to its full implementation,” he said at Addis Ababa University. said during an address.

In January 2022, the US suspended Ethiopia from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade preference program because of the war in Tigray.

With the end of hostilities agreement, Ethiopia now has clear parameters for a path towards restoration.

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