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1 1 (December 19, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govejve0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ____ S Research Service Pursuing Peace in Ethiopia: Issues for Congress December 19, 2022 On November 2, 2022, authorities from Ethiopia's Tigray region and its federal government signed a permanent cessation of hostilities agreement, announcing their intent to end the war in northern Ethiopia on the eve of its second anniversary. Peace talks had begun the week prior, under African Union (AU) auspices in Pretoria, South Africa, and the deal took many by surprise. The Biden Administration says it waged a very intense diplomatic effort to stop the fighting, and Members of Congress engaged Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to urge a ceasefire. U.S. officials called the agreement an important step toward peace, in what has been called the world's deadliest war. The Pretoria deal is not a comprehensive peace agreement-it commits the parties to a series of basic principles and confidence-building measures, and provides a foundation for further negotiations. Congress may monitor its implementation and further negotiations as it considers humanitarian needs, accountability concerns, and requests for reconstruction aid. A communications blackout in Tigray and access restrictions have obscured the war's toll, but as many as 600,000 civilians may have died from war-related violence, starvation, and lack of health care-the result of what some term a humanitarian siege. By some accounts, over 300,000 combatants died in the recent round of fighting, which began in August when a U.S.-facilitated humanitarian truce unraveled. The scale of the fighting and deaths rival what we're seeing in Ukraine, one U.S. official reported in October. The UN Secretary-General warned at the time that the situation was spiraling out of control, amid fears of fresh atrocities. The conflict has displaced over 2.5 million people and fueled a humanitarian crisis in which over 13 million people in northern Ethiopia need food aid, amidst a regional drought crisis that is competing for donor resources. The Pretoria agreement commits the signatories to unfettered humanitarian access in Tigray, where almost 90% of households are estimated to be food insecure. Access has improved since mid-November, but some parts of Tigray reportedly occupied by Eritrean forces and Amhara militia remain inaccessible. Some observers have urged greater donor scrutiny of the humanitarian response, citing, among other concerns, reports that the Ethiopian government blocked a famine declaration in 2021. The UN-mandated International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia assesses that the parties to the conflict have committed war crimes and the Ethiopian government and its allies have used starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and committed crimes against humanity. Its recent Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN12064 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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