ethiopian prime minister abi ahmed
says eritrea has agreed to withdraw
withdraw its troops from the ethiopian
region of tigrai
ahmed says ethiopia's military will take
over the guarding of
border areas amnesty international has
accused eritrean troops of committing
atrocities in the region
thousands of people have been killed
since fighting began last november
between ethiopian government troops
and the region's former ruling party the
tigray
people's liberation front which is also
an enemy of eritrea
let's get some perspective on the story
now with william davidson
he's a senior analyst for the
international crisis group an
independent organization
that has been monitoring the fighting in
ethiopia thank you for joining us
first of all this is a very complex
conflict can you explain
what uh eritrean troops were doing in
the tiguay region
the eritrean troops essentially have
been assisting
the ethiopian federal government in its
efforts to overthrow
overthrow the regional government in
tigray and the war started in november
early november
tiguay's government was overthrown in
late
november but that government um is now
commanding essentially
rebel forces and fighting has been
ongoing since then
so eritrean troops have been involved in
that campaign um to essentially
eliminate
the form of the leadership of tigre's
government
as a political force and those eritrean
troops have also been accused of
systemic looting
of public and private property integrate
rampant sexual violence and
also atrocities against civilians
including
mass mass killings yeah we should
mention that eritrean and ethiopian
troops have been accused of these
atrocities and we've seen reports today
that two refugee camps in tigrai
have been completely destroyed so what
more can you tell us
well that's confirmation of something
which has essentially been known
um for a while the problem or one of the
problems of this conflict has been
verifying information
and there was still a telecommunications
blackout uh
almost a total internet blackout across
tigres so it's been hard
people to get information out it's been
very hard for any sort of independent
actor
to visit those two refugee camps reports
have come out of course but now we have
confirmation
because humanitarian actors have been
there that the refugees have been
displaced
we don't know where all of those
refugees have gone some of them will be
displaced into tigray
some of them seem to have been captured
and taken back to eritrea
others will have fled further afield um
and hopefully their whereabouts and
you know their safety um will be exposed
in due course if this is indeed a
withdrawal by eritrean troops
what does it mean does it mean an end to
the conflict integra
the um i think that the caveat that you
applied there you know if this is indeed
a withdrawal is very important
um of course this is a a stated
commitment withdraw those troops but
there's no admission of the actual
engagement of eritrea's troops in this
conflict which has been very significant
um the understanding is that as the
conflict has intensified in the last
couple of months
and so has the error train engagement
given that it seems that if indeed there
is a complete withdrawal of eritrean
troops
um in in short order that would have a
major impact on the conflict dynamics
it could lead to increased strengthening
of the armed resistance integrate and it
is hard to imagine ethiopia's federal
government
entirely crushing this rebellion um if
eritrea
troops withdraw therefore is ethiopia's
federal government
looking um to pursue some sort of
negotiated solution for this conflict
well that follows from this announcement
but there has been no sign
of the government seeking a negotiated
solution so far
william davison from the international
crisis group thank you very much for
joining us
you very much