Tigray: Ethiopian Prime Minister says Eritrea will withdraw troops from the border area

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“The government of Eritrea has agreed to withdraw its troops from the Ethiopian border. The Ethiopian National Defense Force will take over surveillance of the border areas with immediate effect,” Abiy said in a statement. statement on Twitter after a meeting with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki in the Eritrean capital Asmara.

The Ethiopian National Defense Force will immediately take over surveillance of the border areas, Abiy said.

Thousands of civilians have been reportedly killed since November, when Abiy launched a major military operation against Tigray’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), sending national troops and fighters from Ethiopia’s Amhara region.

CNN has previously reported that soldiers from neighboring Eritrea crossed Tigray and committed extrajudicial killings, massacres, sexual assaults and other human rights abuses.

Abiy claimed Friday that the TPLF triggered Eritrea’s military involvement by firing missiles at the capital, Asmara, pushing the Eritrean government to “maintain its national security.”

CNN could not independently verify the claim. The TPLF has denied initiating the conflict and has accused Ethiopia and its Eritrean allies of genocide and other crimes against humanity.
Separate investigations by CNN and Amnesty International in February revealed evidence of massacres by Eritrean forces in the village of Dengelat and the city of Axum.
And last week, CNN and Britain’s Channel 4 News both published investigations into rape being used by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces as a weapon of war against women in Tigray.
A view of the bus terminal in Wukro, Tigray, on March 1, 2021.
On Tuesday, just days after the reports were released, Abiy said his government would hold any soldier responsible for rape or looting in Tigray – and acknowledges that Eritrean forces fought alongside Ethiopian forces after months of denial.

“Reports indicate that atrocities have been committed in the Tigray region,” Abiy wrote in a post on his Twitter account. “Regardless of TPLF’s propaganda of exaggeration, every soldier responsible for raping our women and marauding communities in the region will be held accountable as their mission is to protect.”

Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for resolving a long-running conflict with neighboring Eritrea, ending two decades of hostilities. Critics say Abiy’s acclaimed peace deal with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki paved the way for the two sides to go to war against the TPLF – their mutual enemy.

On Monday, the Eritrean embassy of the UK and Ireland responded to CNN’s repeated requests for comment by denying allegations of misconduct by Eritrean soldiers and denying Eritrean troops were in Ethiopia.

CNN’s Gianluca Mezzofiore, Katie Polglase, Nima Elbagir, Barbara Arvanitidis and Alex Platt contributed to this report

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