"What you see now is the beginning of the end," said TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda just over a week ago when I interviewed him Tigray.

Behind the mountains, battles were heard, and Getachew Reda uttered confidence. 

"I'm not giving you a timetable, but it's over soon." 

Just over a week later, Tigray's defense force, the TDF, marched into the capital Mekelle after intensified fighting.

The government then called for a ceasefire, something several international actors appealed to several times during the almost eight-month-long conflict.

Many need help

According to news agencies, the people of Mekelle have celebrated in the streets.

The conflict has caused unimaginable human suffering and close to a famine.

The UN warns that 90 percent of the people in Tigray need food aid, and 350,000 will be on the verge of starvation.

But that there would be a famine around the corner in Tigray is not something the government in the capital Addis Ababa wants to hear about.

I asked the question to the Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Dina Mufti, then he interrupted and snapped that he had not been there and seen what was happening so he could not confirm it, and so he asked me to "stop asking such questions".

He said that he himself had been in Tigray about a month earlier with ambassadors, but only for a few hours and in the capital Mekelle.

Then it is easy to ignore what is happening outside.

Need peace and rest

What the people of Tigray now need is peace and ceasefire, an opportunity to cultivate their fields and rebuild their lives.

Many have lost an incredible amount, if not all, and now is the time for both sides to make sure they do not lose more. 

Unfortunately, a ceasefire on the part of the government is, in the worst case, just a way to ensure that Eritrean forces continue to control large parts of Tigray, where aid organizations do not have the opportunity to go.

People I spoke to in Tigray said that there had been incredible destruction, rape and murder in the footsteps of the Eritrean forces. 

When Ethiopian troops reportedly left Mekelle, they are said to have taken with them, for example, Unicef's satellite equipment and looted banks.

Several countries have now asked for an extra meeting of the UN Security Council to resolve the situation.

Now is the time for a dialogue

Now is the time to start a dialogue between the TPLF and the government in Addis Ababa, preferably with a mediator.

But for that, all parties must agree to it. 

The TPLF must engage in dialogue with the government for the good of the people, even though they now appear to have made great territorial progress. 

Addis Ababa must acknowledge that it is a conflict, something they did not want to call the situation.

If they do not, they will see no reason to mediate. 

On the other hand, it is interesting that they are announcing a ceasefire in a situation they do not call war and which they said was over a long time ago.