The TPLF is no longer considered a terrorist party in Ethiopia. MPs on Wednesday (March 22nd) removed the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the party of the rebel authorities in this region of northern Ethiopia, from the list of terrorist entities, announced the lower house of the Ethiopian Parliament.

"The Chamber (...) adopted the decision to withdraw the terrorist designation from the TPLF by a majority of votes," Ethiopia's House of People's Representatives said on its Facebook account. The TPLF had been classified as terrorist since May 6, 2021, several months after the start of a conflict with the federal government, which ended a peace agreement signed last November.

U.S. pressure

On a visit to Addis Ababa on 15 March, Anthony Blinken linked the resumption of a greater economic partnership with Ethiopia, interrupted because of the conflict in Tigray, to "reconciliation and accountability" for the atrocities committed there.

In Geneva on Tuesday, a day after Blinken's statements, the UN commission of inquiry into allegations of repeated human rights violations in Tigray in recent years stressed that last year's peace deal should not prevent investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity.

This "remains more important than ever to achieve lasting peace with full respect for human rights," the group's chairman, Mohamed Chande Othman, told the UN Human Rights Council.

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A war of 500,000 dead

Last September, the UN commission said it had "reasonable grounds to believe that all parties to the conflict" - Ethiopian and Eritrean forces as well as rebel forces - "have committed war crimes and human rights violations since fighting broke out in November 2020", he recalled.

Ethiopia said Tuesday it would "continue to put in place all measures to hold those responsible accountable ... and ensure justice for all victims."

The exact toll is difficult to assess, but the United States estimates that some 500,000 people died during the conflict in Tigray, more than since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

With AFP

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