ETHIOPIA – (WARSOOR) – The United Nations Security Council has for the first time called for an end to hostilities in Ethiopia, urging the warring sides to negotiate a “lasting ceasefire”.
The yearlong conflict between federal government troops and Tigrayan forces has killed thousands of people and displaced more than 2.5 million people. The UN has said up to 7 million people in the regions of Tigray, Amhara and Afar need help, including 5 million in Tigray where some 400,000 people are estimated to be living in famine-like conditions.
ously scheduled to take place on Friday was rescheduled for early next week, shortly before it was due to take place.
Instead, in a joint press statement, the 15 members of the UN’s most powerful body “expressed deep concern about the expansion and intensification of military clashes in northern Ethiopia”.
The Security Council further called on all parties to refrain “from inflammatory hate speech and incitement to violence and divisiveness” and urged them “to put an end to hostilities and to negotiate a lasting ceasefire”. The council members also called for unhindered access for humanitarian aid and the re-establishment of public services, among others.
The members had been negotiating a statement for several days and eventually reached a compromise with Russia on the text, diplomats said.
“There had been argument, we understand, about a draft statement that had been drawn up primarily by Ireland and Kenya calling for a cessation of hostilities,” Al Jazeera’s Mika Hanna, reporting from the UN headquarters, said.
“We understand that Russia, in particular, objected to some of the language in this particular statement but the president of the Security Council did emerge and read the statement”, only the second by the council in the past year. Hanna noted that Mexico’s UN Ambassador Juan Ramón de la Fuente Ramírez, council president for November, was “at pains to emphasise his view that the Security Council was not divided on this issue,” he added.
With the meeting now expected to take place on Monday, the involvement of neighbouring Kenya was absolutely critical according to a number of diplomats who spoke to Al Jazeera.