News: Over 50,000 Tigray region ex-combatants successfully demobilized- Gen. Tadesse
General Tadesse Werede, deputy president of Tigray interim administration (Photo: Tigray Television)
Addis Abeba – Over 50,000 former combatants of the Tigray region’s military have been demobilized in the initial phase, according to General Tadesse Werede, deputy president of Tigray interim administration, and head of the cabinet secretariat for peace and security.
During a briefing with regional media on Wednesday, General Tadesse explained that the demobilization process is a practical implementation of the Pretoria Peace Agreement, carried out in its own way and with full commitment.
In November 2022, a peace deal was signed between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that ended the two-year-long war in Northern Ethiopia. This agreement was signed in Pretoria, South Africa, followed by the executive plan for its implementation, signed in Nairobi, Kenya.
On 10 January 2023, the African Union’s Monitoring, Verification, and Compliance Mission (MVCM) team, appointed for oversight purposes, have confirmed the start of the disarmament process as Tigrayan combatants handed over heavy weapons to the Ethiopian National Defense Forces. On 26 May, as part of continued disarmament process, the Tigrayan forces handed-over group weapons in the presence of representatives of the African Union MVCM at a special place called Lachi, near Mekelle city.