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Addis Drops Charges Against TPLF


FILE: Tigray rebel forces General Tadesse Worede (2nd L) speaks with Ethiopian Armed Forces Field Marshal Berhanu Jula (2nd R) during the signing ceremony of the declaration of the permanent cessation of hostilities agreement between Addis and Tigray on November 12, 2022.
FILE: Tigray rebel forces General Tadesse Worede (2nd L) speaks with Ethiopian Armed Forces Field Marshal Berhanu Jula (2nd R) during the signing ceremony of the declaration of the permanent cessation of hostilities agreement between Addis and Tigray on November 12, 2022.

NAIROBI - The Ethiopian government on Thursday announced it is scrapping criminal charges against leaders of the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), in line with a peace deal in its northern region.

"According to the peace agreement" signed last November in South Africa, "criminal charges that were filed in connection with this matter and were in the process of a dispute have been withdrawn," the justice ministry said in a statement.

The announcement is the latest confidence-building measure under their landmark peace deal.

Last week the Ethiopian government said it had appointed a top TPLF official as head of an interim administration for Tigray, the country's northernmost region.

That appointment came just a day after parliament removed the TPLF from an official list of terrorist organizations

The conflict began in November 2020 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF after accusing its fighters of attacking federal military bases.

In November 2020, the official Ethiopian media announced that arrest warrants for treason had been issued for 64 TPLF leaders and 32 senior army and police officers.

Among the those names was Getachew Reda, who was last week named as "president of the Tigray region's interim administration" under the peace deal.

The death toll of the brutal two-year war is difficult to establish, but the United States estimates that the conflict left around 500,000 dead.

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