Tigray forces in Ethiopia support 'negotiated end' to war

The leader of Tigray forces in Ethiopia has expressed the commitment to a “negotiated end” to the nine-month war that has killed thousands and left nearly half a million people facing famine

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The leader of Tigray forces in Ethiopia has expressed the commitment to a “negotiated end” to the nine-month war that has killed thousands and left nearly half a million people facing famine, while the United Nations secretary-general on Thursday warned “there is no military solution.” In a letter to U.N. chief Antonio Guterres, seen by The Associated Press ahead of Thursday’s U.N. Security Council meeting on the crisis, Debretsion Gebremichael said the Tigray side requires an impartial mediator, among other conditions. But he warned that the African Union, whose headquarters are in Ethiopia, “cannot provide any solution to the war” that the continental body “endorsed” early in the fighting. That complicates the AU initiative announced Thursday to appoint former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo as its special representative to the Horn of Africa. The prospect for talks between Ethiopia’s government and the Tigray leadership, who dominated the national government for 27 years before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office, remains deeply challenging. Ethiopia’s government earlier this year declared the Tigray People’s Liberation Front a terrorist group, and the United States told Thursday's meeting that the government has “not responded positively” to calls for talks.