United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an immediate ceasefire to the fighting in Ethiopia.
This is just as the United States warned there was “no military solution” to the ongoing civil war.
The calls came as Ethiopian media reported that Abiy Ahmed, the country’s prime minister and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was at the front “giving leadership from the battlefield” amid an escalating year-long crisis.
Recall that recently, high-profile Ethiopian athletes, including Olympic gold medallist and national hero Haile Gebrselassie, parliamentarians, party and regional leaders have also pledged to join Ethiopian forces battling rebels from the northernmost Tigray region, with men in Addis Ababa also joining up.
Guterres, while seaking in Colombia, called for an “unconditional and immediate ceasefire”.
The war broke out in November 2020 in the country’s Tigray region between Ethiopian federal troops and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
In July, the conflict spread into two neighbouring regions in northern Ethiopia, and the rebels have been advancing towards Addis Ababa, the capital.