TPLF lays out conditions for truce talks with Ethiopian gov’t

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front demands a full withdrawal of Eritrean troops and Ethiopia’s Amhara state fighters.

The rebel leadership of Ethiopia’s Tigray region has demanded a full withdrawal of Eritrean troops and the fighters of the neighbouring Ethiopian state of Amhara before it can engage in any talks with the federal government about a ceasefire. The development came in a statement issued on Sunday by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the regional authority driven out last year by Ethiopian forces and troops from neighbouring Eritrea. The TPLF returned to the region’s capital, Mekelle, on Monday to cheering crowds. Their return was followed by a unilateral declaration of a ceasefire by the federal government, a move dismissed by TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda as a “joke”.